Chosen
by Calofisteri
Summary: The Doctor receives a strange message which leads him and his companion Escart Johnson to Baker Street. When Sherlock Holmes enters the TARDIS and begins a journey with them, it becomes certain that their meeting wasn't a coincidence. What ties the three of them together?
1. Rule One

Sherlock was done. He was literally done with everything. It seemed like all of London's criminals have chosen to torture him together, by doing absolutely nothing. There hasn't been an interesting case for ages. Sherlock did have a lot to do, he helped John and Mary to plan their wedding, but well, that wasn't exactly his favorite thing to do. It wasn't that he didn't want to help; it was his own offer after all. And he knew he kind of owed it to John after everything he put him through. But there was so much time left until the wedding, and Sherlock didn't understand why on Earth they had to start planning now. Didn't John and Mary have something better to do? Besides that, he never understood weddings. He just didn't get it. Why do people get married? What's the point of doing so? _God, marriage is a stupid thing.  
_John sighed as he watched his friend sit in his chair, typing on his laptop like crazy. It looked like he wrote five pages just to delete it all to start again, and he'd been doing that for hours. John knew Sherlock was bored to death. When he first offered him and Mary to help them with their wedding he thought he was kidding. He didn't believe it. He knew Sherlock very well and that wasn't something typical for him to do. It took Sherlock days to convince him that he wasn't trying to poison the guests or use human body parts as decoration or something like that. But in the end, John accepted the offer and he was grateful. Maybe, he thought, just maybe Sherlock was really sorry for everything he did. Maybe this was his way of showing it, his way of apologizing. Anyway, he seemed to get a bit obsessed with it lately. He didn't stop working on it, even though John himself wasn't working on it at the moment and Mary wasn't even around. "You do realize that you don't have to obsess over the wedding twenty-four hours, right? You can stop now, Sherlock." "You are the one who said 'oh, let's start planning our wedding now so everything will be perfect on the _big day_' three hundred years before the actual _big day_," Sherlock annoyingly replied, emphasizing on the big day which was, in his opinion, a very stupid title for the wedding day. "By the way, there is no reason to make a stupid event seem even more stupid by giving it a stupid name." John ignored Sherlock's comment, he was used to that kind of stuff coming out of his friends mouth. "It is the wedding of me and Mary, Sherlock. It's nice of you to help, but maybe Mary and I should have a word in the planning of _our own wedding_ as well. And I don't know if you've noticed, but Mary isn't even here." John took Sherlock's laptop out of his hands. Sherlock was seemingly annoyed by it, but at the same time he was pleased. Being a wedding planner was a distraction from the boredom that was his life, but it wasn't the most exciting thing in the world either. "Where is Mary?" John rolled his eyes. "I already told you, Sherlock. She's staying at a friend of hers for a few days. I think her name is Lana or something, she's moving and Mary is helping her." Sherlock didn't reply. He didn't care about what the name of Mary's friend was and what they did and he didn't even care about where Mary was. He was just so bored. Life is boring when no one is trying to destroy it. He needed a case. Desperately.

* * *

The TARDIS was shaking heavily when the Doctor and Escart Johnson stepped back in. "Doctor! Is there an earthquake in the TARDIS?!" The Doctor ran towards the console and tried to fly away. It took him a bit of time until he finally managed to pull the right levers. They just came out of a cave on a planet called Syloniass – it seemed like a nice place to look around, really. That was, until they got attacked by strange creatures even the Doctor couldn't identify. They were tiny and red and had wheels, they basically looked like toy cars with the difference being that they were, well, alive. And they were shooting at them. They probably only tried to defend themselves, since visitors didn't seem to come to their cave often. The Doctor and Escart ran back to the TARDIS where they were safe, but the guns of the aliens were big and them shooting at the TARDIS caused it to shake. They managed to escape and now they were floating around in space. Escart Johnson, she was an extraordinary person. The Doctor met her a few weeks after he faked his own death. She was from Brighton and was about twenty, the Doctor didn't even know her exact age, he didn't care too much. He learned to stop asking people about their ages; he thought it would increase the constant fear of losing them.

It all started with his plan to go and visit Brighton a few years in the future. He had no idea why he wanted to do that, it was just a feeling he had. But it went wrong, he ended up in Brighton, but in the present, and in the room of a very surprised young blue-haired lady. Her hair was as blue as the TARDIS. Her room was quite small, the big box hardly fit in it. At first she was shocked, understandably she was scared. Who wouldn't be scared if a blue box materialized inside of their room, with a man stepping out of it a few seconds later. And while she was impressed by the 'new technology the robbers seemed to have invented', she immediately tried to call the police. The Doctor talked to her though, he calmed her down and explained everything to her, and she was amazed. She didn't even doubt it, not any second of what he said. She stepped inside of the TARDIS and unlike most of the people who step inside of the TARDIS, she didn't walk around it in circles. She didn't even say something about it being bigger on the inside. The Doctor was kind of disappointed by that, he really loved it when people commented on that. It was almost like a tradition. The Doctor really liked her hair. He hasn't seen many humans with blue hair, it made him smile. Escart looked like she had an Indian background – her skin had a nice natural tan to it and her lashes looked incredibly long. Her eyes were dark brown. She was rather skinny, and wore a black top and a short white skirt with black dots on it. It made the Doctor smile because it reminded him of Amy. She was fascinated by the TARDIS and the Doctor's stories. "I have always believed in aliens," she told him, "and to be honest, I was hoping I'd be visited one day." She asked the Doctor if he could show him a few places. And he didn't want to be alone, so he agreed. She's been with him for a while now, and he grew pretty attached to her. 'I can't wait to introduce you to Amy and Rory,' he thought. Escart was very interesting; really, the Doctor was intrigued by her. She was very adventurous and brave, like all of his friends. But he had to admit, he had never before met someone as clever as her. She wasn't clever in the meaning of math or science or something, he was still the best at that, but she was so thoughtful. The way she thought, the things she thought about, her theories, the way she looked at the world, that was unique to him. She was extremely intelligent, and he admired her for that. She was artistic and theatrical; she compared her life to a movie in which she is the protagonist. Apart from that, she knew quite a lot about people. Sometimes they came across random people and she could read them like a book. She was able to find out so much about a person just by looking at the place they live in. The Doctor got to know her good, but he also felt like he didn't know her at all. Sometimes they sat down and talked, and she told him that not one person ever really knew her, apart from herself. She had thoughts she couldn't tell anyone, not even him. "I'm afraid you won't want me with you anymore if I tell you about how I view the world" she told him. The Doctor didn't know what to think about that. He liked Escart very much, and he considered himself her friend. They got along well, but the Doctor wasn't able to identify her mood or her character. She didn't seem to have one. No fixed character, she just changed all the time. He often teased her about it. "You change your personality more often than I change my face" he said. Since he didn't tell her about his regenerations yet, she had no idea what he was talking about. "If you stick around with me long enough, you'll see." That's what he always told her.

When they were up in space and off Syloniass, they couldn't stop laughing. "Alright, Doctor." Escart took a piece of paper out of a drawer in the TARDIS. It didn't take her long to figure out where which drawer and lever and button was and what to do with them. "I'm going to make a note for every time you wanting to show me a '_beautiful, peaceful planet_' ends in a disaster, and I'm sure in a few days I'm gonna have hundreds of them." "But beautiful, peaceful planets are boring!" Escart smiled. She knew he was going to say that. "I didn't say otherwise. Can I fly the TARDIS?" Surprised, the Doctor quickly turned around and said "No! No, no, the last time I let someone fly the TARDIS it was horrible, I'm never going to let that happen again." "The last time you let someone fly the TARDIS? Are you talking about yourself? Because I swear to God, you can't fly this thing at all. You, Doctor, are horrible at flying your own machine." "That's not true," the Doctor returned, his honor seemingly a bit wounded, which made Escart chuckle. Suddenly something distracted the Doctor. He felt something, a message on his psychic paper. "What happened?" Escart asked. She recognized the psychic paper, she really loved that. It was quite useful. "Someone sent me a message," the Doctor replied. "Asking for my help." "I didn't know it was possible for people to actually contact you through that paper." "Well, it isn't easy," he started explaining. "Not everyone can do it."  
"So, who can do it then?"  
"People who have extremely intense feelings about something, because they need help. Most of them don't even know they are sending me a message, they don't even know I exist. Most of the time they are insanely scared, or sad, or lonely, or .."  
He paused for a moment when he took a look at what was actually written on the paper.  
"Or.. bored."  
Escart laughed. "Bored?"  
"Yes, well, that's something new." He took another look at the paper and put it back in his pocket, then he turned back to his console to pull the levers. He was rather excited about this, whose thoughts could possibly be strong enough to reach him because of boredom? "So, Escart, we are going to London!" Escart was confused by that. She had intense feelings. She was bored. She was sad at times. And it was intense, always. She started to wonder; what if the Doctor lied? What if he actually came to her because she sent him a message as well, and she didn't even know about it? "Rule one, the Doctor lies." He once said that to her, it was one of her favorite things he ever said. She was going to confront him about this, but now was not the time. '"So, just to make this clear. Someone unintentionally sent a message to your psychic paper, from London on planet Earth all across space because they were.. bored."  
"Exactly," the Doctor grinned at how ridiculous this was, and oh, he loved ridiculous things. "And we are going to pay them a visit!"

It wasn't long after, when Sherlock and John heard a strange noise from outside the house..


	2. Introduction

„What the hell is that noise?"  
"Probably Mrs. Hudson trying to cook something" Sherlock replied, unimpressed by the strange sounds.  
"No, it's coming from outside" John said as he walked towards the window. He couldn't believe his eyes when he looked out of it.  
"Sherlock.. you.. take a look at this. This is impossible."  
Sherlock sighed as he stood up and walked up to John to get a view out on the street.  
"It's a telephone box."  
"Yes, yes I can see, Sherlock, how is that possible?"  
"Why would someone put an old telephone box on the street?" Sherlock had to admit that he was interested in the blue box. Maybe something was inside, maybe a dead body, maybe there was finally an interesting case for him. But his thoughts were interrupted by John.  
"It wasn't just put there Sherlock, it.. it just appeared! Right now, a few seconds ago, it appeared out of nowhere."  
"What? How can a box just _appear?_"  
John turned around to face Sherlock. "It materialized, Sherlock. You wouldn't know because you spent your whole day sitting there, staring at nothing but your laptop and moaning about how bored you are but I _saw_ it, it materialized a few seconds ago, in front of my eyes."  
"Alright John, calm down." Sherlock looked outside the window again, to see if there were any signs coming from the strange wooden box. "John, there are people coming out of the box. They are heading towards the door."  
As John and Sherlock looked out of the window they saw a young man with a bow tie and a young woman with blue hair.  
"Do you think they are.. clients?" John asked Sherlock, obviously confused by the strange happenings.  
"I don't know," Sherlock said, "I'll go down and ask them."

"Are you sure this is the right address Doctor?" Escart asked her alien friend. She was just as curious as him about who they were going to meet. "Well, it said so on my paper," the Doctor replied, "221B Baker Street."  
"Can I see the message myself?"  
The Doctor handed his psychic paper over to his friend.

221B Baker Street.  
_Bored._  
- SH

"SH? What's that supposed to mean?" she asked herself quietly, the Doctor didn't hear her. He was just about to ring the bell as the door got opened from the inside and the consulting detective stepped out.  
When Escart first saw the man in his suit, with his black curls and his extremely pronounced cheekbones, she could've sworn she recognized him from somewhere.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor. Are you bored, by any chance?"  
"Eh, I'm sorry?"  
The Doctor took another quick look at his paper, put it back in his pocket and smiled at Sherlock.  
"Is there a person with the initials _SH_ in this building?"  
'_Alright_,' Sherlock thought, '_they are here for me_.'  
"I am SH. Sherlock Holmes. Hello."  
The Doctor grinned at him, Sherlock thought it was a bit creepy. But that could probably be said about everything that happened so far.  
The Time Lord got very excited by the sight of the detective, Escart could tell.  
"So, Sherlock Holmes, the answer is yes then. You are bored."  
As Sherlock was about to answer, John came down the stairs and joined them.  
"What's going on here?"  
Sherlock would have loved to answer John's question, but he had to admit that he had no idea what was going on himself. He looked at the strange duo and figured that they have been together for a long time, and have probably been in some dangerous situations. The girl had a few scars, not many, some of them old, some new. Her shoes have been damaged a lot, they weren't very old yet there were many scraped off parts and it looked like she'd been running in them a lot. She has probably been in a stressful situation a short while ago. But when he looked at that weird man, the Doctor as he called himself, he wasn't able to deduce anything. That man, he just.. he looked so inhuman. It was obvious that he had been with his companion for a long time, they probably encountered the same situations together yet his clothes seemed to be undamaged. Everything about him was weird. Sherlock was curious to find out more about the two of them.  
The Doctor walked past Sherlock an allowed himself to enter the flat. He turned to John.  
"Hello. I am the Doctor. I flew across time and space in a big, blue telephone box and now I am here to save your boyfriend from one of the most disturbing monsters in the universe."  
John was used to all kinds of insane people since he got to know Sherlock. But he has never been as irritated as he was in that moment.  
"I.. what-"  
"Boredom" the Doctor interrupted him. "I am talking about boredom. Sherlock Holmes is bored enough to send me a message all across the space and you just let him suffer without doing anything about it? What kind of boyfriend are you?"  
"I.. I am not his.."  
Escart went past Sherlock to join the Doctor inside of the flat as well. '_This is quite a lovely place'_, she thought. "Alright Doctor, I think we should probably show them the TARDIS. You know, to stop them-"  
"To stop them from being confused," the Doctor interrupted her, "of course!"  
"No," she replied, "to stop them from calling the police. I mean, if you think that showing them a time machine which is bigger on the inside will stop them from being confused, that's fine, but I doubt it."  
The Doctor grinned because Escart finally said it; even if it was because of a different reason than others had, she finally said the '_bigger on the inside'_-sentence.  
"Alright," the Doctor excitedly span around, "Sherlock, and.. Sherlock's boyfriend, follow me."  
Escart walked right behind the Doctor. As she stepped out of the flat, she took another look at Sherlock – unlike the Doctor she could tell that John and him weren't a couple. _Sherlock Holmes_.. where did she hear that name before?  
Sherlock took another glance at John and at the TARDIS; he had to make a decision. He was going to go with them for sure, he was way too curious and intrigued to do otherwise. But he had to be careful.  
"John? Could you please get me my scarf? I left it upstairs."  
John sighed annoyed, but wanted to do his friend the favor. As he went up the stairs, Sherlock picked up his coat from the coat hook and quickly followed them outside, as they walked towards the big box. The Doctor realized it. "You don't want him to come with us then? Did you have a conflict?"  
Sherlock ignored him and kept on walking.  
It wasn't that he didn't _want_ John to come with him, of course he did. But he knew that what he was about to do could be extremely dangerous and at the moment he didn't want John in too dangerous situations. He still felt guilty because John got attacked and thrown into a bonfire on the same day he returned from the dead.  
They stood in front of the TARDIS and Sherlock couldn't believe his eyes when the Doctor opened the door and allowed him to step inside. It was.. a ship? A huge spaceship? Like, very huge? _Inside of a tiny telephone box?_  
"This is.. this.. it is.. bigger on the inside."  
The Doctor grinned. "It is the TARDIS. It can travel anywhere in time and space."  
Sherlock was uncertain about what he was supposed to do – he always tried to keep cool and react normal to any situation, but this was insane. He faced the Doctor. "What are you?"  
"I am not a human."  
"Tell me what you are."  
"I am a Time Lord. From Gallifrey. You've probably never been there, unless there is a bar called Gallifrey somewhere. Is there a bar called Gallifrey? Gallifrey would be a great name for a bar."  
Sherlock didn't know whether to be amazed or startled, he was both, probably.  
"Gallifrey is a planet?"  
"Yes. Well, it was. Still is. But.. long story."  
'_If John only knew,_' Sherlock thought, '_I just met an alien, and he didn't even believe in invisible paint.'_  
"Sherlock, I couldn't find your scarf.." John started as he got back down, only to see the TARDIS disappear in front of him, with Sherlock in it. "Y_ou bastard."_

Sherlock was walking around in the TARDIS. Escart spotted him, he was a bit uneasy, understandably.  
"It's new, I know. But you're gonna get used to all of this soon."  
Sherlock turned around to see Escart stand on the other side.  
"Where are we? I mean, right now, are we.. flying?"  
"Look outside," she said, "open the door and find out."

It was true. It wasn't a trick or a fake, the man was an alien and they were in space.  
Sherlock struggled to find the words to say. He just stared out of the open door, into the darkness with millions of lights, he stared down on his home planet he has been on just a few minutes ago. Sherlock Holmes has always had an open mind, he had to, otherwise it would be impossible to observe and deduce, but the other aspect of his work is to think rationally, he had to combine both. Never would he have ever imagined that something like this was possible. And he felt amazing. It was all so unreal, but it was perfect. His whole life just changed in a matter of seconds.  
Escart stood beside him as he watched the stars. "It's beautiful, right?"  
Sherlock turned around to face her. "Yes.. yes it is. I do find stars beautiful, always did. But now I am up here with them which is.. insane."  
Escart smiled. She knew how he felt – everyone who ever took a step inside the TARDIS probably did.  
"Sherlock Holmes," she started, "I know you from somewhere. I've seen you before."  
Sherlock, who was slowly starting to get to his senses again, replied "yes, you probably have. I'm the only consulting detective in the world. Killed myself two years ago."  
Escart remembered now. "Oh, you! Of course! The man with the ugly hat!"  
Sherlock rolled his eyes at that. _Everyone hates that stupid hat.  
_"I remember seeing you on the news and in the papers. You were everywhere a few months ago because you '_came back from the dead'_. You faked your own suicide?"  
"I did, yes. Long story."  
Escart smiled. "That's pretty cool."  
Sherlock raised his eyebrows. He couldn't quite follow her. "Cool?"  
"I mean, that you just faked your own death like that. You jumped off a building, right? One must be really clever to fake that."  
Sherlock smiled at that. The Doctor, who overheard their conversation joined them and put an arm around each of them. "Hey guys, guess what, I faked my own death too. I'm officially dead right now."  
Escart laughed. "I know, you told me a million times now Doctor, but I'm sure Sherlock had it a bit harder than you. I mean, your death was impressive and all, but he's human, he had to have an exact structure and timing and everything." She knew how the Doctor did it, and why he did it, and she really admired him for it. She just loved to tease him. The Doctor was her best friend, in fact he was the only one she ever called a friend.  
The Doctor took his hands off them and stepped back, seemingly a bit offended.  
"I did it because time was falling apart and everything was happening at once, which you people can't even remember happening, so I think my fake suicide was a bit more eventful!"  
"Alright, don't make a contest out of it. You are both amazing suicide-fakers." She stepped closer to the Doctor. "I think we should explain a few things to him."  
"Fine," the Doctor said in his annoyed voice, "do you have any questions?"  
He had many questions actually.  
"Why did you come to me?"  
The Doctor, back in his cheery mood took out his psychic paper and showed it to Sherlock. "I got this message from you."  
Sherlock took the paper in his hands. "What? No, I didn't send you a message, I think I would've noticed if I sent a message into space."  
The Doctor took the paper from him again and sat down to explain Sherlock things as they were.  
"The thing is, this is psychic paper. I show it to people so they see what I want them to see, very useful stuff really, and sometimes I receive messages through it."  
"Hold on a second," Sherlock said, "How do I know you are telling me the truth? You said this paper can show everyone what they want you to see, so how do I know you really got that message?"  
The Doctor assumed he was going to ask that question. He stood up again. "You are a detective, right? I researched you a few minutes ago and apparently you work with '_the science of deduction'._ Look at Escart and tell me what you see."  
Sherlock was skeptical as he had no idea why the Doctor wanted him to deduce his friend, but he wasn't unhappy about it. He didn't get to show off with his skills for a long time. Back on Earth, he decided to treat his friends better. The two years in which he was alone were bad for him, because he knew there was an alternative. He had friends and he decided he wanted to keep them, so he began to change. It wasn't easy, but it was okay. Well, most of the time it was. It was certainly better than losing John and the others, again.  
"Well," he looked at Escart, "As I already deduced back on Earth you ran a lot in those shoes, you have encountered many dangerous situations. You colored your hair blue and you did so about three months ago, probably because you want to set yourself apart from the crowd. Plucked your eyebrows in the morning. The necklace you're wearing was a gift, probably from your mother, as you probably don't keep up with your friends as often anymore because you are very adventurous and would rather spend your life in here instead on Earth with boring people around you – that's understandable, I can relate, really. However, your mother is important to you and probably the only person on Earth you regularly talk to, so you decided to wear it. You recently stroke a cat, but it wasn't your own. You –"  
"Okay," Escart stopped him from continuing, "You got that last one wrong a bit. I didn't stroke the cat. I shook hands with it, actually. But well."  
Sherlock felt a bit uneasy. He faced the Doctor again. "So, why did I have to do this?"  
"Because I needed the proof that you really are a genius," the Doctor said, being quite impressed."The psychic paper wouldn't even work on you. Geniuses can see through it, even Shakespeare could." He held the paper in his hands again and thought about a Gallifreyan number before he gave it back to Sherlock. "So tell me, what do you see on the paper?"  
Sherlock couldn't see anything special. "It's the same message from before. The one I apparently sent you."  
Escart took a quick glance at the paper as well. The Doctor never used it on her. She smiled because she saw the same thing Sherlock did – the message. So as long as the Doctor was really thinking about something else, it meant she was pretty smart as well. She was very happy about that.  
"Okay, but I still have no idea how me being bored was projected on your psychic paper."  
"Neither do I," the Doctor replied. "Normally it only works subconsciously, when a person has very strong feelings, or if the person wants to send me a message and knows how to do it. Anyway, normally you would have to feel scared or something, but not.. but not bored. That's weird. Ridiculous. And funny." The Doctor laid an arm on Sherlock's shoulder. "So, my friend, I want to figure out how you managed to do that. Which is why you're here. Besides that, I really wanted to help you and get you out of there, since your boyfriend didn't seem to be very helpful."  
Sherlock had to smile. He was eager to find out himself, since this was about him. '_Finally a case. A perfect case. The most interesting and least boring case that I am ever going to have,'_ he thought.  
"How are we going to find out?"  
The Doctor laughed, he was very excited about having Sherlock in the TARDIS.  
"Oh, I don't know, I don't work according to plans. You'll just stick with us and go to different places with us, and sometime, somewhere something is going to happen that leads us to the right answer. It always happens like that, basically."  
Sherlock liked the idea of staying. It was a time machine after all, he could be back anytime, and he had so many things to look forward to. So many totally not boring things. And the Doctor, he was crazy, but he was also an alien, and Sherlock liked the idea of meeting and actually knowing an alien. He could find out so much about the universe, he could know so much more than other people. It would take him a while to actually understand that this was really happening, but it was worth it. The Doctor and his friend seemed like nice people, crazy but nice. At least they weren't boring. He was sure he was going to like them.  
"Doctor, I think I should show Sherlock the rooms. He still needs to settle down here, and I think he could use some sleep." The Doctor agreed and watched them as they walked down the corridor.

"Follow me," Escart told Sherlock.  
"The TARDIS actually has more rooms?" It looked so small from the outside, Sherlock couldn't believe it.  
"Of course it has. It's rooms are infinite, actually. At least the Doctor says so. He can remove and add new rooms whenever he likes. It's funny, oh look, there's the pool! Love the pool."  
They walked a bit further until Escart stopped in front of an empty room.  
"You can stay here. It's the first one I could find. The TARDIS is going to shape your room for you, meaning it will look as you want it to and you will get insanely many clothes. Really, the TARDIS gives you a lot of clothes." Sherlock was astonished. They both entered the room.  
"So, the TARDIS is actually alive? Not just a machine?"  
"It has a soul. The Doctor said she even talked once."  
"You seem to know a lot about it. You've been with him for a while, then?"  
"I think it's been six months, yeah. For me. For him time passes by like a day consists of five seconds."  
Sherlock sat down on his bed, in his new room. He was getting used to this. Now he really wished he would have taken John with him, he needs to see this one day! Sherlock could imagine them in the TARDIS together. Not quite like 221B.  
"Was I right? I mean about the deductions. Were they true?"  
Escart sat next to him. "Yes, they were. Well, except for the cat thing, but you don't have to understand that. But you were right, you knew quite a lot about me." She took a better look at him.  
"Just like I can see that you have been wearing this suit for two days now." Sherlock looked at her wondering.  
"The stain!" she said. "You've got a stain on it. Ketchup, obviously, and it's been there for at least a day. When I was in your flat before I saw the bin, there was an empty ketchup bottle inside but it was underneath other things, meaning that you probably threw it away yesterday. You most likely tend to use the bin upstairs, your roommate probably does too, so the bin downstairs isn't used that often, except for your landlady. So, if you finished it yesterday, it means the stain has been there since yesterday. Since you seem to be all organized and everything you normally would have washed the suit right away and just worn something else, however, you didn't bother to leave the flat at the moment because nothing interesting was going on so you just kept it on."  
There was a moment of silence. "Don't think I'm not smart enough to keep up with you."  
"I didn't say you weren't. That was.. it was good. You're right."  
He was a bit surprised. She smiled.  
"Thank you."  
Sherlock smiled back at her, even though he felt a bit uncomfortable. He liked being the only person in the room who was able to make accurate deductions; he liked being the clever one. But he also appreciated her skills, and however, he was certain she wasn't nearly as good at it as he was.  
"It's good to show off with it at times, right?" he asked her.  
"Are you calling me a show-off?"  
"I'm calling myself a show-off."  
"I should feel honored."  
Sherlock smiled.  
"What's your name again? I forgot."  
"Escart. Escart Johnson."  
"Escart? What kind of name is that? Sounds ridiculous, is that even a real name?"  
"Whatever you say, _Sherlock_."  
She laughed as she stood up and left the room. Sherlock probably needed some time to cope with everything that happened to him today, and she wanted to say goodnight to the Doctor before she walked over to her own room.


	3. Home Is Where Your Heart Is

Sherlock remembered what his room looked like before he fell asleep the night before. It was grey and rather empty, with nothing but a bed and an empty wardrobe. But when he woke up, things were different. Very different.  
Escart told him about how the TARDIS was going to use his thoughts to create a personalized room for him but he didn't expect it to be so _accurate_. And he didn't expect it to happen at night, while he was sleeping. It was a bit creepy. Basically, his room looked like a smaller version of 221B. There was his chair and even John's chair. 'John isn't even here,' he thought, 'why would the TARDIS do this?'  
When he took a better look at the chair he saw a photo of John. The picture was framed and positioned in the center of the chair. "Are you serious?" he asked the TARDIS. "Great," he quietly said to himself, "I'm talking to a machine." The TARDIS made a strange noise after that, as if she was insulted by Sherlock's comment. "Wow, I didn't mean to offend you." Sherlock was a bit startled. He believed Escart when she said the TARDIS had a soul because after everything he saw, there was no reason not to believe everything. But he didn't know she meant it so literally.  
"But, a picture of John? Really?" He sighed and walked towards the door. _Even the door looked like his door on Earth_. It had 221B written on it. At least the knocker wasn't straightened. "Well, I have to thank you for letting my brother out of this" he told the TARDIS and left his room. He saw corridors and paths that seemed to be endless. He just wanted to know this place like Escart did, and he wanted to find other rooms, like a bathroom for example. But if the rooms really were infinite like Escart told him that would be hard; apart from that, the paths seemed kind of different than they did the day before. He decided he would just go ahead to check out where the paths led him, so he turned right and walked. It was a long path, it felt never-ending. And there was nothing, no rooms, no junctions, just the wall. He walked and walked, and after what felt like ten minutes he ended up in front of his 221B room again. He had been walking in circles, and now he had no idea what to do. Never before had he felt so helpless. He hated this feeling. He decided for another path, one that went straight forward. After minutes of walking he finally found the control room, but there was no sign of Escart and the Doctor anywhere. Sherlock opened the door and stepped outside. They weren't in space anymore, they have landed on what seemed another planet. It was a beautiful place, the grass looked bluish and the sun was shining. He could see a lot of different people – some looked human, others not so much. There were people with green or red skin. It seemed to be a very peaceful location, and Sherlock really wanted to find out more about it, so he decided to look around. Sherlock Holmes was never a person who waited around for other people to show him everything, he always preferred checking things out for himself. John and Lestrade were often frustrated by that.  
It was definitely another planet – even the clouds looked different, they were orange. The air felt beautiful, the wind had a warm breeze to it. He wandered around a bit, the people looked friendly. Everyone was talking to someone, and Sherlock could spot a few strange animals. They obviously weren't dangerous and not very shy. Some of them looked really funny, there were fish that walked on land and birds with four pairs of wings. They were beautiful. Sherlock could've sworn he saw a humanoid cat – he remembered Escart talking about how she shook hand with one once. Where was she, anyway? It just hit Sherlock that he was alone here and couldn't even find the Doctor or her in the TARDIS. He wasn't scared, but he was skeptical. He had no reason to trust them, he only just met them and for all he knew this could be a trap. They just flew from one place to another while he was asleep after all, and now there was no sign of where they were. They weren't going to fly away and leave him alone on a distant planet, were they? For now, it was best to go back to the TARDIS he figured out. But, to his relief, he saw Escart and the Doctor. They were talking to someone with yellow skin. Escart saw him as he headed towards them. "Look," she told the Doctor, "he's awake."  
Sherlock watched them from a distance and waited for them. He didn't want to be rude and interrupt their conversation. _Actually he felt a bit uneasy and uncomfortable because he was surrounded by aliens, and they were talking to a yellow alien, but he would have never admitted it, not even to himself. _Escart could see how uncomfortable he was, it made her laugh and she felt a bit sorry for him. It was understandable, really. The Doctor and her said goodbye to the yellow person and approached Sherlock.  
"You have no idea what you missed while you wasted your time with boring things like sleep" the Doctor said as he greeted Sherlock. "We saw an Urisas-bird! The rarest bird in the universe!"  
Escart laughed. "It took his sonic screwdriver."  
"Yes," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. "That's how it thanked us for saving it from those hunters."  
He looked at Escart. "Not funny!"  
Sherlock realized that he had no idea how late it was and how long he slept. He had only been inside a time machine for one night and he already lost all track of time. "I had troubles finding my way out of there. Your machine is really confusing Doctor. And I think it tried to shout at me in the morning. And are there any other rooms I can use? Like a bathroom or something, would be really useful."  
"Every room you need is in your room. If it wasn't before, it is now."  
The Doctor smiled and gave Escart a knowing look; she knew what he meant. It wasn't easy for her when she first joined the TARDIS either; it's always hard to settle in the beginning.  
Sherlock however had no idea what the Doctor was talking about; his mysterious talking was starting to annoy him.  
"Let's go back to the TARDIS," Escart said, "and we'll show you what we mean."  
"You go with him," the Doctor said, "I need to get myself a new screwdriver."  
"Alright" Escart sighed and took Sherlock by his sleeve. "Come with me."  
Sherlock looked back to see where the Doctor was going.  
"He isn't really getting a new screwdriver," Escart explained to Sherlock, who gave her a questioning look. "If you're going to stay with us there's one thing you should know. Rule one: The Doctor lies. He has screwdrivers all over the TARDIS. The truth is he came here for a reason, not because of the bird, but because something is going on and he has this complex where he needs to solve everything."  
'_Complex where he has to solve everything_,' Sherlock thought. Reminded him of himself a bit, maybe the Doctor was constantly bored as well.  
"Why doesn't he want you to solve it with him?"  
"Because his ego is bigger than the universe and he thinks he can handle things alone when in reality he would be dead without his friends."  
"Maybe he worries about them. Doesn't want them to get in trouble" he mumbled.  
Sherlock had to think about John. He wondered what he was doing on Earth. John had probably tried to call him at least seventeen times. Sherlock was sure he was pissed at him; but worried at the same time. Maybe he already told Lestrade about it? Sherlock hoped he didn't. Lestrade really didn't have to know about this.  
"Yes, he probably is. I can understand that. He lost a lot of people." She looked at Sherlock. "What about you? You didn't leave your friend on Earth because you didn't _want_ him to come with you, right?"  
Sherlock wasn't in the mood to answer to her question, so he said nothing. They carried on walking, and Sherlock tried to get used to the circumstances once and for all, but he didn't like the feeling of having to get used to a new situation. That was because normally it didn't take him a long time; he was Sherlock Holmes, he had to be ready for everything. It made him angry that he wasn't ready for this. He had to ask Escart a few questions to find out more about his surroundings; he figured it was the first step.  
"What is the name of this planet?" he asked her.  
"It's called Trencas. I've been here before. The Doctor came here because he thought it would be a nice first travel for you. Because, you know, the last time we were here it wasn't quite as peaceful as today. A lot of things were going on back then. He figured you'd probably like a place with a lot of action, but it seems like planets can change a lot in 500 years."  
"The last time you were here was 500 years ago?"  
"Yes. Well, for them. For us it's been a few weeks."  
"And the creatures that live here.. they looked like humans."  
"Well, apart from the skin color, yes. But not all of them do. There are many cat people here, you probably saw one. But everyone here is nice."  
They reached the TARDIS and stepped back inside. Escart was walking Sherlock back to his room.  
"Last night when you brought me to my room the paths were different than they were in the morning" Sherlock said.  
"The TARDIS is complicated and confusing and irritating and especially in the beginning it is really, really frustrating. The reason the paths changed for you was because you didn't know it well enough, and a great part of how the structure in here is built depends on what you think about it. So, if you think about how complicated the TARDIS is, it will be complicated for you. Once you got to know everything in here better, the paths will stay the same."  
"That means the paths are different for you than they are for me?"  
"Exactly. Yesterday you saw them how I see them, because I know how it works and I was walking right next to you. Now you see them as I see them because I explained it to you. You probably won't have any problems with it anymore."  
They reached Sherlock's room and went inside.  
"So, the TARDIS made my room look like my flat because that's where I feel home, right?"  
"Yes."  
"Why is there a picture of John?"  
"Because you need him to feel home, probably."  
Sherlock looked around in his room – something changed. There was a fridge, it wasn't there before.  
Sherlock smirked. '_If there's a head inside the TARDIS really knows me'_ he thought.  
"The Doctor told you there will be new rooms, right?" Escart said.  
Sherlock turned around, and where there was the end of the room and nothing but a wall in the morning, there was now a door which led to the bathroom.  
"That's ridiculous, I'm sure a bathroom is a part of my home" Sherlock said in a skeptical tone.  
"Well, you're new here Sherlock, the TARDIS needs some time."  
Sherlock didn't show it, but he was amazed at how the TARDIS worked. He sat down again and looked at Escart.  
"You really like this, don't you?"  
"What?"  
"Explaining all these things to me."  
Escart smiled; he was right, she liked to know a lot of stuff about something, just like he did.  
"Don't pretend like you don't like to explain to people how you work" she said before she sat down, not on John's chair but on Sherlock's bed, which was still in the same room as it was before. She didn't want to remove John's picture, she was sure it meant a lot to Sherlock, otherwise the TARDIS wouldn't have put it there.  
"I do," Sherlock replied, "used to brag about it a lot."  
"We are both show-offs."  
Sherlock didn't say anything to that. He remembered John's voice in his head, calling him out on what a show-off he was. It was the day he kind of lost interest in constantly bringing other people down.  
"Since the TARDIS finally managed to give me a bathroom I'm going to take a shower and wear one of the million new suits it gave me."  
Escart waited while Sherlock took a shower. She just walked around in the room, checked out a few things. From what she could see, it was quite obvious what was important to Sherlock. All of the things in his room were put there subconsciously. The TARDIS always put sentiment over needs; Escart knew it, since the first thing in her room, apart from a bed, was a book she had since she was a little kid. She had a very personal connection to it. Things like a bathroom or food only followed the day after, just like in Sherlock's room. Sherlock had a lot of things here he probably didn't even know were important to him. Escart laughed because she could see at least ten of those long coats he loved so much in his wardrobe.  
Sherlock came out of the shower as Escart looked at the picture of John.  
"You worried about him, right?"  
Sherlock gave her a questioning look.  
"John. That's why you didn't want him to come."  
"Maybe. I don't see why you care."  
"Because I think you and the Doctor have a lot of things in common."  
"He is sentimental and over the top nice to everyone. Basically the only things we have in common are that we are worried about friends and that we are both thirsty for adventures and cases to solve." Sherlock didn't like this conversation at all, he hated being compared to other people.  
"You know," Escart said, "I understand what you mean. And the Doctor, he doesn't really know me. Sometimes I don't get him because.. he has such a good heart. Well, he has two of them actually, but forget about that. The thing is, I can't say that about myself. I'm not sentimental, and I'm not caring like he is."  
Sherlock looked at her; the conversation suddenly started to be more interesting. If he was going to stay with those two people for a longer time it was important he knew more about them after all.  
"He lost everyone," she continued, "he destroyed his own planet because he had to, and always lost everyone who was important to him. He has every right to be pessimistic, depressed and uncaring. Yet he cares about everyone. He feels empathy for everyone, no matter how tiny their problems are, he is there to comfort them. Not once have I heard him say that his problems are worse than others. And I admire him for that, because I _couldn't_. _I could never be like that._"  
"He destroyed his planet?" Sherlock was startled; he would have never thought so. The Doctor seemed so optimistic, so happy, it was hard to imagine.  
"Yes, because of war. I don't want to tell you all of it now Sherlock, I don't know if he'd want me to. All I can tell you is that this guy is totally broken and basically he is the best man that I have ever met."  
"You aren't the empathic kind then."  
"It's weird," she said, "sometimes I have no feelings at all. I don't feel sad for anyone. But on other days I just have to think about one tiny thing that once happened to someone, and I'm overwhelmed with feelings of compassion and guilt. I do my best not to show the Doctor my uncaring side, I don't think he'd understand."  
'_Maybe I have more in common with you than I do with the Doctor_,' Sherlock thought. Somehow he didn't want this conversation to end. He had never heard someone talk about things the way Escart did in this moment, and he felt he could connect with her.  
"I am able to feel empathy. Especially for John. I felt terrible after I killed myself. I felt so guilty. I apologized a million times to him, and I was genuine about it. Even though I don't think he believed me. To be fair, I really don't think I did a good job with the apology stuff. I'm not good at being serious in serious situations. I am a sociopath, after all. High-functioning."  
"You killed yourself only so you could save the lives of your friends though, or am I wrong?"  
Sherlock nodded.  
"Doesn't sound like a sociopath to me."  
Sherlock wasn't even angry about her comment. A few years ago he probably would have been, but not now. He knew sociopath wasn't the right term to describe him.  
"But I like calling myself like that."  
Escart gave him a knowing smile. "Because you think it makes you special."  
Sherlock was surprised. No one ever understood that.  
"Well, yes. Being a sociopath is better than being a normal person. I would do anything not to be ordinary."  
Escart nodded. "I know, Sherlock, it's the same with me. But you are already the only consulting detective in the world. That makes you special. The only sociopath in the world is something you could never be." She stood up.  
"We are both not ordinary and very special people Sherlock, we don't need labels to proof that. Anyway, the Doctor has been alone for forty minutes now and that means he's in trouble. Don't worry, most of the time he knows how to stay alive, but he could probably use some help. Since we are both desperate for adrenaline I'd say we go and find him, and you can have your first adventure in outer space."  
Sherlock smiled and stood up. He felt good. Way better than he did before. Escart was a good person to talk to, they could probably be good friends. As they headed out of the room he looked back to the door one last time and thought '_you can't fool me anymore, TARDIS. I think I've settled now. The paths will stay the same._'


	4. Yellow

„How do we find him?" Sherlock asked as he and Escart stood in front of the TARDIS. "Look around" Escart said. "You've wandered the streets in this city before. You've seen the people, you've seen them talking. You've seen what they look like. What do you see now?"  
"Less people" Sherlock quickly replied. "There are less people than before. When I was here forty minutes ago there were way more people than now."  
"That's true," Escart replied. "Wouldn't actually be something special, right? I mean, the planet is huge, they can go somewhere else. But something here is suspicious, something particular." She paused for a moment and looked at Sherlock. Normally she wouldn't have wasted so much time by letting someone guess, but she wanted to kind of introduce Sherlock to detective work on another planet; besides that she knew he was good at this anyway, and he enjoyed it. "You realized, didn't you?" she asked him.  
Sherlock looked around for a few seconds before he answered her. "There were all sorts of people, yellow people, green people, red people, cat people. Most of the people I saw were yellow actually."  
"Exactly," Escart continued, "and if the majority of people you saw here before had yellow skin then it's kind of odd.."  
"..that now there don't seem to be any of them anymore" Sherlock finished her sentence.  
"So we know that there's probably something wrong with the yellow people. They all went somewhere else and I suppose that wherever that place is, the Doctor is to be found."  
Escart smiled. '_It will be fun working with you'_ she thought as she looked at Sherlock. "Good observation Sherlock. You're right, this probably has something to do with the yellow people and we have to find them. Now you certainly don't have any idea where they could be.." Escart captured Sherlock's glance after she said that. _'God, you're so easily insulted'. _"No offense Sherlock but you couldn't know, you didn't even know this planet existed an hour ago, don't look at me like that."  
Sherlock looked away; a bit upset obviously. _He didn't like not knowing. _  
"Anyway," Escart continued, "I know where we could possibly find them. The Doctor and I talked to this yellow colored man in the morning, I'm sure you remember. The Doctor basically forced me to talk to him, said it was important and '_a conversation we could impossibly miss'_, so he knew something was wrong from the beginning. The man told us about a house northwestern from here where he meets with '_people like him'_ as he said. So stop making that face and follow me."  
"Alright" Sherlock quietly said before they headed northwestwards together. They weren't running but walking fast; they knew the Doctor had been alone for quite a while and Escart was a bit worried about him. Escart found Sherlocks expression to look like he was a bit hurt.  
"You don't have to be mad at yourself for not knowing where to go, Sherlock" she said while they were walking. She looked at him; he gazed forward, ignoring her.  
Escart wasn't very impressed by that. She continued talking. "I know what it's like, wanting to know everything because you constantly have the fear of not being smart enough. I don't know about you but I think that's how you feel too, maybe. Can't know if you continue to act like you can't hear me, but well." She paused for a moment, waiting for a response. _Nothing. 'How can you be that stubborn?'_  
"You know what I think? I think you feel like being clever is the only thing you're good at, the only thing you can do to impress other people and you think it's the only thing people like about you. I can relate to that."  
_Still no response._ Just that cold icy gaze forward.  
"And since you're not trying to deny it in any way I'll just assume it's the truth. I'm probably not the person to talk about this kind of stuff so it's pretty hypocritical coming out of my mouth but you need to stop feeling like your brain is the only precious thing about you. We both have to stop thinking this way. It didn't alter my impression of you at all that you didn't know something you couldn't possibly know. Also wouldn't alter my impression of you if you were wrong about other stuff. Basically the only person who's impression is altered is you. About yourself."  
They took a few steps in silence.  
"How far?"  
"What?" Escart looked at him, she was surprised he said something at all, even if he still pretended to not have heard her words.  
"Until we reach that house you speak of. How far?"  
Escart stopped and looked around for a second, while she was trying to comfort Sherlock she totally lost track of her surroundings. But luckily they were where they were supposed to be.  
"I can see it! There!" she pointed at a house in front of them.  
"Alright, and how do you know it is the one we are looking for?"  
Escart looked at him and shrugged. "Well.. uh.. it is yellow?"  
Sherlock cracked a little smile and continued walking. "Good enough. You should've asked for some details" he said as he walked towards the house.  
"I'm sure you would have done it" she said before she followed him.  
"I know" he quietly said before he opened the door to the yellow house.  
It was a wooden door, unlocked and cracked as it was opened. The house was obviously very old and looked like it was about to collapse any second.  
Sherlock and Escart entered the house. They were inside an empty room, there was absolutely nothing. The wood looked normal on the inside; the walls weren't painted yellow like the outside was. "Doctor? Are you here?"  
"I am here!" they heard him shout from the next room.  
An old pink door on the right side of where Escart and Sherlock were standing led to it. It was the only colorful thing in the empty room, even if the color on it was pretty damaged. There was a painted pink flower in the middle.  
To Escart's surprise the Doctor wasn't in danger when they found him – in fact he was alone and was scanning things with a new sonic screwdriver. "Hey!" Escart smiled as she greeted him. She was happy to see he didn't get himself into trouble, though she wondered how he did that, that wasn't very typical for him. "Where did you get that from?" Escart asked him, pointing at the screwdriver."  
"I found it in my pocket!" the Doctor happily said as he turned towards Escart. "Not even sure why it was in my pocket. I love when things just happen to my advantage." He laughed and excitedly spun around to face Sherlock. "So, are you friends with the TARDIS yet?"  
"Eh, I guess I am, yeah."  
The Doctor smiled at him. "Brilliant. I think she likes you."  
Sherlock looked at him confused. "I'm sorry, who?"  
"The TARDIS, silly!" the Doctor laughed.  
"Oh, alright. So she's a she then."  
"Well of course she is, did you call her a boy? No wonder she screamed at you! I don't think she likes you."  
"But you just said-"  
"I was just kidding."  
"When you said she likes me?"  
"No, when I said she doesn't like you, obviously. How can you always be so serious, isn't that exhausting? I should buy you a fez. Maybe it would cheer you up. I think it would look good on you."  
"What?"  
"Fezzes are cool. Cool stuff looks good on everyone."  
Sherlock didn't know if _all _aliens were that irritating and annoying, but the Doctors good mood was a bit.. _too good_ for him.  
"Could you stop talking with your hands? It's really frustrating watching you."  
"Can you stop talking with your mouth, hm? I don't think you can. And that's the problem, you see."  
"You're ridiculous" Sherlock said annoyed.  
Escart couldn't watch this any longer, it was funny she had to admit, but _enough is enough.  
_"Alright guys," she said as she placed herself between them, "Sherlock already has enough ugly hats. I think we are here for a reason? Doctor?"  
"Ah, yes," the Doctor said motivated and excited, as if he'd completely forgotten about his talk with Sherlock.  
"The yellow people Escart. There's something you didn't notice."  
"Oh, is there?" Escart was kind of baffled she apparently missed something.  
"When we were here a few weeks ago, what was different than it is now?"  
"Uhm.." Escart started to walk around as she was thinking. "Well, the most obvious thing is that there was war between the red and the green-skinned the last time we came here and now it seems like a completely different world. Everything is so peaceful. The war was 500 years ago though, so I didn't really think it would be important.."  
"Because it isn't!" the Doctor interrupted her. "We were here to stop the conflicts and while we didn't end the war itself, we contributed a lot to the peaceful life. The war officially stopped 200 years ago and it's been peaceful ever since."  
"Good. So that's not the problem then?" Escart felt a bit stupid because she was obviously missing something important.  
"Think, Escart. There was war between the green and the red-skinned. The cat people were there too, they were against the war. But there was a race that wasn't here 500 years ago."  
Now it hit her, she felt so dumb for not seeing it before. '_See Sherlock, I can relate'_ she thought as she looked at him for a few seconds. To her surprise he looked back at her – with a look that said '_I know what you're thinking right now.'_  
Anyway, it was time for her to focus, she could whine about how silly she felt later.  
"500 years ago there weren't any yellow-skinned people on this planet" she said.  
"Yes," the Doctor replied, "that's because yellow-skinned people can't even be here. I noticed it from the second we landed here today. This isn't their planet. Now of course they could be tourists or something, but did you see how many of them are here? It's like the whole population consists of them. But they shouldn't be here! They should be on a planet called Maracus!"  
"Okay, so that's weird, but maybe their planet has been.." she looked at the Doctor before she finished the sentence. '_Probably shouldn't have said that.'  
_"Destroyed," he continued, he tried to sound the same way he did before but there was an obvious tone of anger and sadness in his voice. "It hasn't. Maracus exists and there aren't any serious problems in the future. I've been there thirty years from now."  
"And there was population on the planet? Yellow people?" Sherlock asked. This was getting very interesting. _Way better than cases on Earth_.  
"Yes," the Doctor said, "which means that we have to find out why they aren't there now. I saw them all living on the planet they belong in the future which means we probably made them return there, somehow." He looked at Sherlock. "Time travel. Complicated stuff. Anyway," he spun around again and started going up and down in the room, "this house, the man we talked to in the morning said that's were '_his kind' _meets. So I guess he said that's where the yellow people meet. Makes us wonder why he would tell us that" he said as he looked at Sherlock, "but maybe he didn't think we would be curious about it."  
"But how did you ask him? What exactly did he say?" Sherlock asked him.  
"Ah, I can't remember."  
Sherlock rolled his eyes. "How can you not remember?"  
"It's not important!" the Doctor replied annoyed.  
"Of course it is! Why would he just start to talk about this house without a reason? And don't you think he would be suspicious if you just asked him? You can't just miss out on the details like that!"  
"I think I know this better than you because I've been in space for a thousand years and I have solved many _cases_ as you call them and I always survived. Well, no, I died twelve times _but _I am still here and you need to believe me when I say that _we will find other ways to find out the truth_."  
That made Sherlock shut up for a moment.  
"Well," the Doctor continued, "this house, just like the yellow people, isn't supposed to be here. Don't ask me how I know that" he said as he faced Sherlock, "I can feel what belongs on a planet and what doesn't."  
"You've been here almost an hour before us. What did you do?" Escart asked him.  
"I've tried to search for some secret passages with my sonic screwdriver. It doesn't work on wood but I thought if there's something disguised here, something that isn't made of wood, the screwdriver would be able to find it."  
"But you didn't find anything."  
"No" the Doctor replied, sounding a bit disappointed.  
"Alright," Escart said as she looked around in the room, "when you see this place for the first time you could assume that no one lives here, but.."  
"The bed" Sherlock finished. "Someone sleeps here every night."  
"Exactly" Escart nodded. "The bed" she said as she saw the confused look of the Doctor.  
"The mattress, the pillow and the blanket, they look new. They are the only things that look new here, actually."  
"Implying that someone changes them frequently" Sherlock added. "Someone who cares a lot about how their bed looks like but doesn't care about the rest of the house, which means.."  
"That someone lives here but most likely only comes here at night and only uses this house to sleep in it."  
Sherlock continued: "Something else about this room is odd. Noticed it, Escart?"  
'_As if he's trying to challenge me'_ she thought.  
"The curtains" she said. "They don't exist. No windows. No light switch. Yet the room isn't dark. Of course you could say that's because it isn't very stable and a lot of the sunrays come in here but it would not be enough to lighten up the whole room like that. There is a source of light somewhere but we don't know where."  
"Okay," the Doctor said, "so that means –"  
"We aren't finished!" Escart interrupted him.  
She looked at a picture of a young girl on the bedside table.  
"There's this picture, it is framed and stands there. The girl is very young and has yellow skin like the other people. She's probably a family member, the daughter or sister of whoever lives here, because obviously the picture is very important to that person."  
"Right," Sherlock continued, "otherwise it wouldn't be framed and it wouldn't stand on a bedside table in a room that is only used for sleep. The picture does look very old though, it is damaged, which raises the question why a picture that is important to someone is just left here."  
"It's been here for a long time without being moved, just like the table itself. Look at the dust. That probably means that someone wants to have it near them when they sleep, but at the same time that person doesn't take care of it, probably doesn't even like to look at it, maybe because something about the picture is hurtful for the owner. Which leads us to the conclusion that.."  
"The girl on the picture died a long time ago" Sherlock finished.  
"Look at you two," the Doctor said after a moment of silence, "you were made for each other."  
Escart shrugged. "Anyway," the Doctor continued, "as you've probably noticed on your way here the yellow people suddenly disappeared."  
"Did you actually see them disappear?" Escart asked the Doctor. "Because Sherlock and I only realized they were gone."  
"No," the Doctor replied, "sadly I haven't." He stopped a second and looked at Sherlock and Escart. "But I'm sure you both know what to do now."  
"Talk to other people!" Sherlock quickly replied. The fact that he was obviously trying to answer faster than Escart made her giggle, which earned her a look from Sherlock, with a _Why-are-you-laughing-at-me_ kind of expression.  
She looked away and continued talking herself. "Other people must find it weird that yellow people and a yellow house suddenly appeared on their planet. They can tell us a few things, like when they came, what they said to them when they first arrived.."  
"Exactly. So let's come back here later and ask the people in town a few questions."  
They left the house and headed back into town, Escart and the Doctor walked next to each other, Sherlock stayed a bit behind. He opened one of the drawers of the bedside table when they first came here and he found something suspicious, he needed to take a better look at it. And what he saw was quite shocking.  
Escart started to talk to the Doctor as they walked, "I really like having Sherlock Holmes with us."  
The Doctor shrugged. "I think he's a bit silly."  
Escart smiled. _'Of course you do_' she thought.  
"Your little challenge was funny though" the Doctor said.  
"What are talking about? What challenge?"  
"You tried to be faster and better than him."  
Escart didn't reply, mainly because of how true it was. _'That's the thing with two people who are alike, two people with the same skills, the same way of thinking. Two people who connect and see themselves in each other. Two desperate show-offs. There will always be competition between us.'_  
They weren't in the town yet, but they saw a red-skinned man stand underneath a tree on the right side. They approached him.  
"Hello," the Doctor greeted him. "We are the Doctor, Escart Johnson and Sherlock Holmes. You can call us the ridiculous name club. Would you mind if we asked you a few questions?"  
The Doctor grinned at the slightly irritated man.  
"Uh, no, ask me."  
"When did the yellow-skinned people first come to this planet?"  
The man seemed to be nervous as the question was asked.  
"I don't know" the man shrugged. "uh, five years ago? Or thirteen years ago, I don't know! I didn't count the years you know.."  
"Why are they here? You must find it odd that they just appeared, must have talked to them. What did they say?"  
"I don't know!" the man almost screamed. "They are just here! I don't care! Everyone has a right to be here. I.. I have to go. Excuse me, please."  
The man went past them and tried to get away as fast as he could; he almost ran. Now one thing was for certain: he was lying.  
The Doctor sighed. "We won't get very far like this," he said. "The ridiculous name club has to split. I'll go and visit the other side of the city. You go and ask the people in the main part of the city, you know, the place we were just heading to. Sherlock and you go together because you both are.. the _deductionaters_." He smiled as he turned around to take another road, the one that led to the other part of the city.  
Sherlock and Escart started to head back to where they landed in the first place.  
"Did he just call us the deductionaters?" Escart asked Sherlock as they walked.  
"Yep" he replied.  
"What do you think?"  
"About the case?"  
"About the Doctor."  
Sherlock waited a few seconds before he answered. "I think he's a bit silly."  
Escart laughed quietly.  
"But the Doctor is one of the best friends you could possibly have. I guarantee you that he will always be there for you. He is a bit crazy yeah, but that's what I like about him. And he hugs people. A lot."  
"I've noticed."  
After a few moments of silence Sherlock started talking again.  
"That was good. The deductions about the house I mean."  
"We did them together."  
"And, um, what you said before, that was.."  
"Nice?"  
"True."  
Sherlock kept his gaze straight forward as he said it; he sounded so uncomfortable it was almost painful.  
"You hate to admit it, don't you?"  
"Yes. Sometimes I think you understand me. A bit. Maybe."  
He kept staring forward; his voice was quiet and he didn't dare to look at Escart.  
"Yes, I think I do. I think I can relate to you. And I also think that you and I could talk about a lot of stuff. Stuff we can't tell anyone else, not even the Doctor, no matter how much I love him, it's true. I felt this connection with you since our first conversation and I think that you could finally be that one person that _understands_ me. Wouldn't that be good? For both of us?"  
Sherlock didn't answer. They spent the rest of their way in silence.  
When they reached the city again the place was a bit more crowded than before but there was still no sign of yellow-skinned people.  
"There are many people here, let's go and ask them" Sherlock said but to his surprise Escart held him by his arm as he tried to go.  
"What are you doing?"  
Escart stepped in front of him and looked him in the eyes. She wasn't able to identify the color of his eyes, they looked grey, but somehow fascinating.  
"We need to talk for a second."  
"What is it now, we already talked the whole time while we were walking here!"  
"I saw it."  
"Saw what?"  
"I saw how you opened one of the drawers of the bedside table when the Doctor looked away. Well, congrats, he didn't see it but _I_ saw it. I don't know if you sometimes just forget that I have a brain or something but don't underestimate me Sherlock Holmes. Anyway, I think you took something out of the drawer."  
Sherlock was certain she figured it out because he stayed in the house a bit longer after they left. She really wasn't stupid, and as much as Sherlock appreciated it, at the moment he wished she wouldn't have asked him about it. It was true, he did take something, because he was shocked by it, a bit afraid even. He tried not to show it. Now he knew he had to tell her.  
"Yes, I did."  
"Why?"  
"Doesn't matter."  
"Doesn't matter? I think it does. The Doctor, you and I are doing this _together_. We need to know everything that has to do with this case!"  
She was silent for a moment and looked at Sherlock. "I know that you want to solve this alone Sherlock, I know what it's like. You want to have the answer at the end, I understand that."  
"No" Sherlock answered a bit angry. Escart was right about him most of the time but this time she was wrong. "It is a photograph and I didn't take it because I desperately want to solve the case Escart, but because the picture has to do with _me_. There was a picture of _me _inside of a drawer on _another planet_." Sherlock took the picture out of his coat pocket.  
Escart was astonished. _That truly was impossible_.  
"Why didn't you tell us?"  
"Because I was a bit freaked out and I think that's understandable!" Sherlock almost yelled. "This is personal Escart, and absolutely impossible."  
Escart looked at the picture again and then at Sherlock; she almost felt a bit sorry. But above all she was concerned. How could this be? _Who was he?_  
"I understand. I'm sorry about what I said. And yes, I get why you are scared so I'm not judging you but you should have told us anyway. The Doctor knows a lot about impossible stuff. He could help. We need to talk to him about it Sherlock, he is the only one who could know what this means."  
Sherlock knew she was right, _but it was so hard to say it. _He chose to just talk about something else. She would know what he really meant.  
"Let's go talk to people" he said as he put his picture back into his pocket.  
"Fine" Escart said, "we'll go and question a few people and then we go and search the Doctor."

In the meantime the Doctor had already asked a few people. None of them had the same reaction yet there was one thing they had in common: all of them were lying.  
"Hello" the Doctor greeted a female cat-human. "I'm the Doctor. Who are you?"  
"My name is Rima."  
"Nice to meet you, Rima! Can I ask you a few questions please?"  
Rima was skeptical. "Why? Are you a stalker or what?"  
"I'm a police man" he smiled as he grabbed his psychic paper and showed it to Rima. Unluckily for him, she still had her doubts. "A police man who calls himself the Doctor?"  
"Yes."  
"You don't even look like you are from here."  
"Well because I'm from another planet. A planet on which Doctor-police men exist. I came here for a very important case that I have to solve. It is about the yellow-skinned people."  
Rima's first reaction showed a tiny bit of fear – but also a glimpse of what seemed like relief, even hope maybe.  
"When did they first come here?"  
"It all started a year ago-"  
The Doctor interrupted her. "A year? They've only been here for a year? I thought it would be a bit more spectacular."  
"What's so unspectacular about one year?"  
"Ah, I don't know" the Doctor replied, "I'm used to things like three hundred years or something. Whatever. You are the only one I talked to that doesn't lie and run away. Why is that so?"  
"Because the others are scared."  
"Why aren't you?"  
"I am," she said, "but if you really are someone who can help it's worth it. To make them go away."  
"Are they threatening you?"  
"Everyone. To be silent, to not say a word to anyone. No one can know they are here."  
"But why?"  
"I don't know their full story, they wouldn't tell us. All I know is that they are on the run from someone."  
"But where are they now? They just disappeared!"  
"I know. I saw it. That never happened before. Apparently they have a special ability that can make them hide so no one can see them. They've never used it as far as I know. Until now. I don't know why they did it. I'm sorry but I'm afraid I can't help you anymore, I told you all I know."  
"You helped me a lot Rima" the Doctor smiled. He was happy to know there were people who weren't afraid to say the truth. He always loved brave people. But now he needed to find out more – who were they running from and why did they all come to one planet? As he turned around, he saw Sherlock and Escart heading towards him.  
"Hey!" he smiled as he approached them. "You are back already? That was fast! What did you find out?"  
"We didn't find out much, but Doctor there's something more important, we need to tell you something-"  
"Look!" the Doctor said "There's a yellow person!"  
Escart and Sherlock both looked in the direction the Doctor was looking and they saw a yellow-skinned man standing there. As soon as he saw them he started running.  
"Follow him!" the Doctor shouted and started to chase after him. Sherlock and Escart followed him.  
"Guess we'll have to tell him later" Sherlock said as he started running.

_'I was the first one to help them find out the truth'_ Rima thought, '_I might as well help them now'_. She followed them. '_We're gonna make it. We're going to make them leave and end this torture_.'


	5. The Countless Crimes of Sherlock Holmes

_Fear.  
_That was the only thing Eliot Brook could feel as he ran.  
There was only one time in his life in which he felt a stronger kind of fear – it was the time in which he and the rest of the population on Maracus had to leave their beloved home-planet.  
Life on Maracus was peaceful. It was beautiful, Maracus was in fact the safest planet in the universe. Its citizens weren't used to huge amount of real fear, because there wasn't a reason.  
But then _he_ came and changed everything. A criminal, and he chose to terrorize Maracus not because he wanted the execution of his crimes to be easy, but because he liked to see the lives of the peaceful people destroyed.  
_Why did no one stop him? _He was powerful, he was a mastermind, he was basically unstoppable.  
So in order to stop being terrorized the citizens of Maracus had to find a way to get somewhere they knew he could never follow them. They had to use a special technology, one they could only use once. They had to leave. And they did.  
Everything went well when they arrived on Trencas, they were sure to be out of danger, but many of them became paranoid. And a few, not many but some of them were so afraid and so stressed out they killed themselves before they even left Maracus – or before _he_ could do it. They had to go to Trencas because it was the only planet that had enough space for the population of another planet – but understandably, the people who already lived there were scared; thought it was an invasion. So the yellow-skinned people from Maracus had to threat the inhabitants to be sure they would remain silent.  
After a year of living without a threat or a sign of _him_, they thought they were safe. But now?  
Now there he was. Eliot Brook, he had to run because of one tiny mistake. And he was afraid, because of _him_.  
But how? How could he be here? _Was there no place in the universe he couldn't go, was there no place for them to be safe?_

"Have you realized," Escart said to Sherlock as they were chasing the man, "that there is a lot of running involved if you travel with the Doctor?"  
"Used to it" Sherlock replied as he turned left.  
"What are you doing?"  
"We won't catch him if we all run in the same direction" Sherlock shouted.  
Rima was faster than them and was at the front with the Doctor.  
"All of the three paths lead to one deadlock. He can't run away." She smiled satisfied and gleeful. The Doctor looked at her. _He saw that look before, he saw it so many times, and he hated it. It was the look of revenge.  
_Sherlock, Escart, Rima and the Doctor all met at the same spot – in front of the man they were running after in the deadlock.  
The Doctor had to hold Rima back in order to stop her from aggressively attacking the stranger.  
"Don't."  
"You don't know what he and the rest of his kind did to us! They destroyed this planet!" she was screaming. She was angry, aggressive, and if she had the possibility to kill this man right there, she would have done it. The Doctor held her though, she couldn't even reach the gun from her white jacket pocket.  
"What is your name?" Escart asked the stranger.

Eliot Brook didn't hear it. He couldn't. He was paralyzed. His gaze was frozen; his eyes were full of terrible fear as he stared at _him_.  
He stared at Sherlock Holmes.

"Why is he looking at me like that?" Sherlock quietly asked Escart.  
"I have no idea."

Eliot's hand was shaking as he pointed at Sherlock.  
"It's you," he stuttered. "How can you.. why.. leave us alone, please, finally leave us alone.."  
He started crying. The Doctor and Escart looked at Sherlock confused as the alien in front of them broke down. Rima was still too focused on the yellow man himself and she thought too much about how much she hated him to pay attention to what he was actually saying.  
Sherlock tried his best to keep a clear head. He took a few steps towards the terrified man who was shivering and lying on the floor.  
"What am I supposed to have done to you?" he asked.  
"Stop it" the man almost shouted. It was a mixture of crying and fearful stuttering.  
"Calm down," the Doctor said, unable to move because he had to hold Rima. "Tell us your name first."  
"I see he's got accomplices now" he said, he was hard to understand because of his stuttering.  
"Why can't you leave us alone? How did you get here?"  
Sherlock was unable to find the right word to say.  
"Tell us your name" the Doctor said carefully, trying to sound as calm as possible.  
"I'll do whatever you say, please spare me, please!"  
"Then tell us your name" Sherlock quickly said.  
"Eliot. Eliot Brook."  
"Okay, Eliot," the Doctor said, "this will probably sound stupid but we have absolutely no idea what is going on."  
"But you are.. you are with him.."  
"That's our friend, Sherlock Holmes."  
"You're lying!" Eliot was screaming again. "You know exactly what he is! You are his accomplices!"  
"We are not," Escart answered, "We are his friends, and we don't know what's going on. Explain it to us, please."  
"You were chasing after me."  
"Because we are here to find out why you are on this planet. Who you're running from. That's all we want to know, really. We are not here to harm you in any way."  
The Doctor took his psychic paper from his pocket with one hand, not letting go of Rima with the other, and threw it at Escart for her to catch it. He nodded at her and she nodded back in order to show him she knew what he wanted. She thought about the Doctor being a police officer and slowly approached the scared Eliot to show him. He looked at it disbelievingly. Escart took a few steps back again.  
Eliot stood up and pointed at Sherlock again. "It's him.. we are running from him.. your alleged friend, he is a criminal, a murderer!"  
"That's not true!" Sherlock almost shouted at him.  
"Alright, I think this is a big mistaking-" the Doctor started but he was interrupted by Eliot.  
"It's not," he said, "you even said his name. Sherlock Holmes, the most powerful criminal of our universe. How could you follow us here? How?"  
"I am not a criminal!"  
Sherlock remembered the last time he was accused of being a criminal. This was different. People had a reason to believe so the last time, but this was the first time he was on another planet. He was freaked out by this situation.  
"Listen," the Doctor said, "Sherlock won't hurt you, if he wanted to he would have already done it. Three people couldn't stop the most powerful criminal in the universe, right? I believe this to be a terrible misunderstanding but you need to explain everything so we can try and find out what is going on."  
"I'm not going to talk as long as he is here."  
The Doctor sighed. He needed Sherlock to stay and listen, but he knew Eliot probably wouldn't be able to be in his presence any longer.  
"Okay, Sherlock, you and Rima go and stay in the middle of the right path. Escart and I are going to tell you everything later. Oh and Sherlock," the Doctor took Rima's weapon away from her and gave it to Sherlock, "be careful. Don't let her do any harm."  
Sherlock nodded and took the gun. He and Rima turned right.  
Sherlock was still trying to come to terms with everything.  
Rima turned around one last time. '_I'm never going to forgive you'_ she thought.

"Sherlock is gone now," the Doctor said as he and Escart sat down on the floor with Eliot, "please explain everything, what happened, why you are here and where the rest of your folk is now."  
After a few minutes Eliot finally started talking.

"They just stormed our planet without a warning and threatened and assaulted us" Rima told Sherlock as they were waiting.  
"But what I don't get," Sherlock said skeptical, "is that there was war 500 years ago, apparently, between red-skinned and green-skinned. Yet this didn't lead to a war?"  
"Oh don't say it didn't," Rima replied, "many people died. Others just chose not to attack, from both sides. Either because they were afraid, or had empathy, or had heard terrible stories about the last war and didn't want another one."  
"And they really threatened you?"  
"Not all of them."  
Sherlock looked at her. "Yet you chose to take revenge on all of them."  
Rima looked down. "I am sorry, but they killed my family. I don't know who did, but if I find that person, I.."  
"How long has it been since someone was killed in this town?" Sherlock interrupted her.  
Rima didn't answer.  
"Because if it's been a long time, the people who killed your family have probably been killed themselves. There isn't a reason to kill innocents."  
Rima didn't react.  
Sherlock started to walk up and down while he was thinking.  
"Why did he say it was me? I didn't do anything."  
_Sadly he had to realize that it was impossible for him to make any possible conclusions.  
_"He's lying," Rima said, "he needed someone to blame for the mistakes of his kind, and there you were."  
Sherlock was about to answer as the Doctor returned. He had a rather serious look on his face; something Sherlock hasn't really seen before.  
"Hey. Escart is still with Eliot. He told me a lot of things about you, Sherlock."  
"He can't. He has never met me. I am not a terrorist Doctor, you know exactly that I've never been here."  
The Doctor could hear a bit of panic in Sherlock's voice, even though he tried to stay calm.  
"Escart and I talked to Eliot and he told us about Sherlock Holmes being one of the most dangerous but also most powerful criminals. No one was ever able to stop him, I don't know how that's possible, but well. He attacked their planet and terrorized all of its citizens ever since, so they decided to leave. It was the only possible way out for them, because he tortured them. So they used old Maracusian technology to get to this planet."  
Sherlock was trying to come up with theories in his mind. The Doctor could see how freaked out he was. He was probably starting to think he really committed those crimes at one point in his life and just forgot about it or something.  
"Listen Sherlock," the Doctor continued, "when I say old Maracusian technology I'm talking about a spaceship. A disguised spaceship, one we weren't able to find yet. The technology I'm speaking of allows a lot of people to be inside of it, obviously, since it transported a whole planet. And well, it also allows the travelers to not only go to another planet, but to another universe. A parallel universe. They can only use this technology once in hundred years, which is why they only do it when it is really necessary. It's actually impossible and not very good to travel through parallel universes, but the Maracusians have always been very advanced. Even I can't do it."  
"So, what you're saying is.."  
"You aren't the real criminal. It is the parallel-you. Looks like you, sounds like you, is probably as over the top serious and annoying as you, and has your name. But it isn't you."  
Sherlock didn't know whether to be relieved or shocked. What he knew was that he was curious. And a bit offended.  
"That would explain.."  
"Explain what?" The Doctor asked him.  
Sherlock remembered he didn't tell him about the picture yet. He decided to not tell the Doctor, he would probably be over dramatic about him not telling him.  
"Everything," he answered, "it explains everything. But how are they hiding themselves and their spaceship?"  
"That's what Escart's trying to find out right now."  
"Oh, you don't really believe this, do you?" Rima argued.  
"Eliot Brook was terrified because he knew that his people have been threatening us and made our lives a living hell ever since they arrived here. And then here I am, once again, with a gun."  
"Once again?" the Doctor looked at her.  
"What I'm saying is, they never told us who they're running from. He needed an excuse and there was Sherlock standing in front of him. He made all of this up."  
Sherlock was sure that this wasn't true. He found a photograph of himself after all, which most likely wasn't even himself, but his parallel-self. If the Maracusians were hiding from Sherlock Holmes it made sense they had a picture of their enemy – they give birth to children who have to know what the man they are hiding from looks like, just in case.  
"I doubt it," he said.  
"And why?"  
"Because I'm a detective and I know when people are lying, and he certainly wasn't."  
"You weren't even with us when he told us everything, how would you know?" the Doctor asked Sherlock skeptical.  
"I just do."  
Before the Doctor could say anything, they could hear footsteps running towards them.  
"Stop!" Escart was running after Eliot.  
He stopped when he reached Sherlock, the Doctor and Rima.  
"Shoot me."  
"What?" the Doctor looked at him confused.  
"I'm not telling you where we hide. I have no reason to trust or believe you and I've already told you too much. I don't want to be the reason he finds the rest of us" he said as he looked at Sherlock.  
"So please, shoot me." He turned to Rima. "I know you want to do it."  
It was the first time Sherlock saw the Doctor panic. He obviously hated the idea of feeling responsible for a dead person.  
"You don't need to tell us-"  
Before the Doctor could finish, he heard a shot. It came from Rima's direction.  
Eliot Brook was dead. Rima was shaking, her eyes were filled with satisfaction and fear.  
The Doctor walked up to Sherlock, he seemed to be furious.  
"Did you give her the gun?"  
"I didn't."  
"Then how did she get it?" He faced Rima. "Did you have a second gun with you?"  
"I took it from him," she replied. It hasn't really hit her yet that she just killed someone.  
"How can you be the clever genius you think you are, how can you be the detective that sees every little detail, yet you are too focused on yourself to realize when someone takes a gun out of your pocket? Would you please tell me how you managed that?" The Doctor was almost yelling at him.  
"I don't know."  
"You don't know. Great."  
"How is this his fault?" Escart asked.  
The Doctor ignored her.  
"I'm sorry," Rima said. "You don't need to tell me, Doctor. I know what happens next. I know where I'm going. I'm not going to resist. But you know what? It's sick that I'm going to prison for this. For killing someone who terrorized this planet for a year but never got punished for it, because you know what? The Government consists of cowards who were too afraid to do something."  
She took her phone out and called the police. _"Hello, I am Rima Selets and I just killed someone. Come and pick me up."_

The Doctor didn't say anything for two hours. Escart thought it was best to not talk to him, she knew him, and she knew how he reacts to things like murder. For Sherlock it was the first time he ever saw him completely furious.  
They tried to find out how and where the Maracusians were hiding. They've parted ways with the Doctor for a while.  
"Murder is the one thing that drives him mad, then."  
"Yes." Escart looked at him. "But it wasn't your fault."  
"Didn't say it was. I do wonder how she managed to take the gun from me without me noticing it though."  
"Well, you know, cats are fast."  
They were sitting on a huge cliff, because they were asking people and searching for clues before, but couldn't come up with anything, so they decided to take their time and think about it for a while. There was a moment of silence before Escart started talking again.  
"Why did she hate him so much?"  
"Because some of the yellow people murdered her family."  
"But he didn't do it."  
"That's a weakness, and frankly I thought only humans had that weakness but turns out, everyone seems to have it. People hate a whole race for something one person has done."  
"I know what you mean. I hate that about people. I'm not the type for revenge, but if he really did kill her family I would have understood why she shot him, maybe. I don't know. I probably wouldn't have killed him, but I would have understood it. I know you spend your time on Earth with catching murderers but I personally think that it isn't that bad, you know. I mean, if you have a reason for it."  
"You don't think murder is a bad thing?"  
"As I said, not if you have a reason for it. And reasons, they depend. People have different reasons for doing different things. Reasons don't always justify murders, at least not for the rest of the world, but for the person who commits the murder. It's so hard to explain. But, I mean, look at the human race. We kill animals all the time, yet it doesn't count as murder.. the way it does when it's a human being."  
They both gazed straight forward into the distance.  
"Oh, you kind of remind me of an old friend of mine. Jim Moriarty was his name, you should be friends."  
"I'm not saying that murder is something good-"  
"I know what you mean," Sherlock said as he looked at her. "What you're saying is that you don't understand the morals of humanity. Neither do I. But you need to be careful. It probably started like that with Moriarty."  
"You could be the greatest criminal in the world if you wanted to be."  
Sherlock smiled. "I am. In another universe, apparently."  
"And what do you think about that?"  
"Fascinating and awful."  
"Awful because you're a criminal?"  
"Yes. No. Basically because I don't like the idea of there being parallel-Sherlocks. I spent a lifetime thinking I was special and the only Sherlock."  
"But you are. Parallel-Sherlock isn't you."  
There was silence again. Escart was a bit nervous, she deeply hoped Sherlock understood what she meant. She wasn't a murderer, nor did she think killing people for fun was a good thing. She just had different views than most people she knew.  
"Have you ever killed someone? On a case?"  
"Eh, yes. Had to. Self-defense."  
"You felt no guilt."  
"No. Why should I? Neither did John when he shot that cabbie to save me. And he didn't even really know me back then."  
"You both had a reason. To protect someone, or yourself. That's what I'm saying."  
Sherlock looked at her again. "I know what you're saying. I never said you were wrong."  
"I'm grateful I can talk to you about this. Now you know what I mean when I say I don't show the Doctor this side of me. The side that understands murder. You've seen him. He despises murder. I don't think he would like to have me around if he knew about things like this, so I have to kind of wear this painted mask when I'm with him. It hurts a bit. Society hurts, and not being a good person in this society hurts. Being a bad person and being a friend of the Doctor hurts. I'm sure you can relate."  
"Painted mask."  
"Yes. What?"  
"Painted."  
Sherlock stood up. "Have you ever read John's blog, Escart?"  
Escart was confused and stood up as well.  
"Uh, no."  
"Good, you shouldn't, it's horrible. Anyway, we once had this case with an invisible client. Turned out he wasn't actually there, but I wanted a solution, so I suggested invisible paint. The house, it was painted, it was painted yellow. There was light and we didn't know where the force was.."  
"Are you saying you actually think the Maracusians painted themselves.. and the force of light.. with invisible paint?"  
Sherlock nodded. "Yes. Not only that, but their spaceship as well. It is probably behind the actual house. The question is, how can we make it visible?"  
"Well, maybe you're right. We should go and find the Doctor."  
So they headed back to the yellow house together, hoping to find the Doctor and with that, the truth.


	6. Voices

„_That's not where the Doctor will be."_  
Escart Johnson stood completely still. She was unable to move; even unable to blink.  
_"You're going in the wrong direction."  
_The voice in her head, it made her feel like she was somewhere else. Like she was in trance. She had never heard this voice before, and she didn't only hear it, she could almost _see_ it. She could _feel_ it. She didn't only hear the voice, she _was_ the voice, and everything else was irrelevant in that moment.  
"_Go back. Don't go any further. Go back. Go to the TARDIS."  
_It was loud and quiet, and calm and aggressive, comforting and scary, all at the same time. And it felt like hours. Every word was long and short, the only word that could somehow describe it was _surreal_.  
_"The Doctor is in the TARDIS."  
_  
"Escart? Is everything alright? Why aren't you moving?"  
It took Sherlock a minute to realize that Escart wasn't walking beside him anymore. He was lost in his own thoughts but after a while he found it weird that she didn't talk to him. That's what she normally did, she tried to talk to him about their similar thoughts and feelings whenever they were walking next to each other. Could be distracting but most of the time it didn't bother him, since he could relate and he kind of really liked her.  
However, when he realized he had been walking alone, he turned around to see her standing there like she was petrified. He walked closer to her and looked at her; her eyes had been open for at least a minute.  
"Hello?"  
"The Doctor is in the TARDIS."  
And everything seemed to be gone.  
"What's wrong?"  
She looked at him, wondering what he meant. "Nothing. Why are you asking?"  
"You were standing there like a statue for a minute."  
"Really? Uh, no, I was just thinking. We should go back to the TARDIS."  
"Why?"  
Escart didn't really know _why_, she somehow just knew they had to.  
"I don't know.. I mean, I think the Doctor will be there. I think he is in the TARDIS. Come on, let's go back, we need to hurry up."  
It was clear to Sherlock that something was wrong, he just wasn't sure what, and he wasn't sure if Escart even knew herself. He decided to just play along for now.  
"Alright. Let's go back."  
They turned around and headed back to the TARDIS together. Escart still didn't talk to Sherlock, but this time he made sure she was near him at all times.  
_Her voices were gone. But she couldn't remember having them. For her, it was just her normal thoughts._

"There you are," the Doctor greeted them as they entered the TARDIS. He seemed to have calmed down. Escart was extremely relieved about that because she hated seeing him mad or unhappy.  
The Doctor had made a bit of a chaos in the console room; empty boxes and countless objects were lying on the floor, all over the room.  
"Are you searching for something?" Escart asked him.  
"I'm searching for a spray," he said. He looked at her for a second before returning to his search.  
She was happy to see a smile on his face. He always needed something to do to forget about bad stuff for a while, that was typical.  
"I think I know how they are hiding," Sherlock said.  
"Invisible paint?" the Doctor turned to Sherlock, who was a bit surprised. Not only because the Doctor knew the answer, but mainly because he'd expected him to still be mad at him.  
"Well, yes, I thought so."  
The Doctor grinned. "Ah, you're really clever."  
He quickly span around and walked around in the room again, while he continued talking.  
"Well, sometimes at least. Invisible paint is something you can only get on Maracus. And you can make it visible by using a certain spray. I must have that spray somewhere here.."  
Escart looked around. Suddenly she felt an aching pain in her head. Normally she tried her best to resist pain because she always thought being too sensitive to pain was a human weakness, but this was so sudden and it was worse than anything she had ever felt. It felt like a million of needles were stabbing her all at once. And then there was the voice again, almost commanding.  
_"It's in the silver box. Don't waste too much time. Open the silver box. It's in the silver box."  
_A few seconds that felt like hours while Escart was going through it, but then it was over and gone, and she couldn't remember anything, not the voice and not the pain.  
When she looked right she saw an unimposing silver box; easily assessable, but she felt like she had to open it.  
"Doctor, is this it?" she said as she took out an old grey spray can.  
"It is!" the Doctor happily said as he ran towards Escart and took the can from her.  
"Escart Johnson, you are incredible," he said before he quickly kissed her forehead. It made her laugh because of how often he did that.  
"But it's empty," she said, but a few seconds later she could feel the TARDIS shaking, making it clear that they were going somewhere.  
"Does it always shake when it's flying?" Sherlock quietly asked Escart, remembering his first flight in the TARDIS, when they picked him up at Baker Street.  
"That's 'cause the Doctor can't fly it," she replied before she looked back at the Doctor. "Let me guess, we are going to Maracus to get ourselves new spray?"  
"Exactly. The totally peaceful Maracus from this universe, where Sherlock Holmes didn't ruin everything."  
Sherlock quickly eyed the Doctor before he realized that they landed.  
When they stepped out of the TARDIS, they saw a wonderful planet with a peaceful and comfortable atmosphere. Everything was as it should be – yellow. Everything had a different shade of yellow. The people were yellow, the grass was yellow, the sky was yellow, only the buildings were painted in many different colors. The Maracusians seemed to have a thing for paint.  
The Doctor smiled because everything seemed to be as it should be, which was surprising and even he had to admit that he was happy about it.  
"Don't worry about the not-yellow people, they are tourists. All here for the amazing Maracusian technique. They are the most technically advanced race in the universe and the people come here because it is the only place on which you can buy the great Maracusian stuff. They have technique they don't even sell because of how amazing it is, literally. Things that should only be used by their folk. Luckily for us they do sell invisible paint and the sprays, but only here. Now you could argue that paint isn't really technical but.. it's invisible, and that's very cool."  
They walked towards a shop which had "_The Biggest Paint Shop In The Universe_" written on it with huge letters. The Doctor smiled. He has always been impressed by this planet and what it's citizens achieved.  
"It is the biggest paint shop in the universe."  
"Thank you for the info Doctor, I would have never known" Escart sarcastically replied.  
When they entered the shop, all of them were completely stunned. Especially Sherlock, since he was the least used to all this alien stuff and there were colors he swore shouldn't even exist.  
"There it is! The spray we need!" the Doctor happily said. "If they really painted their house and their entire folk, we need to buy all of them."  
"All of them?" Escart asked. "But there are hundreds of them. And how exactly will you pay?"  
"Ah, don't worry, Time Lord technique and Maracusian technique combined makes all of that very easy."  
Sherlock looked around and saw tubes and cans with "_invisible paint_" written on them.  
"Doctor, can I ask you a favor?"  
The Doctor turned around and looked at Sherlock, who could see something in his face that almost looked a bit like pride and glee.  
"Sherlock Holmes is asking me for a favor? Just when I thought I knew about all of the wonders of the universe.."  
Sherlock rolled his eyes. "Shut up. I need invisible paint. Only one can. Or a tube, I don't care, I just need it."  
"Fine by me."  
"And then we need to go back to Earth."  
"What?" Now the Doctor looked rather confused and uncertain.  
"You can't leave us Sherlock."  
Sherlock had to hold himself back from smiling. Would the Doctor really be a bit sad about him leaving? Maybe he wanted to know more about him. Sherlock only ever deduced humans but the Doctor was very human, from his looks to his personality, which was a bit insane but not exactly inhuman. So there was a possibility that the Doctor really wanted Sherlock to stay.  
"But I need to go back to 221B."  
The Doctor shook his head. "No, no you can't, you only just joined us. You've only been to two planets! In the _present_! You haven't seen the future or the past or the other amazing planets. Planet of the hats, you need to go there, they will love you. Oh, and besides that, the only reason we picked you up is because you and your psychic powers to reach my psychic paper with your boredom are a mystery that has yet to be solved. You can't just leave without solving your own mystery."  
The Doctor's reaction amused Sherlock. He didn't stop talking, it was like he desperately wanted him to stay, even though he never stopped talking about how annoying he was before. It was good for Sherlock's ego.  
"I'm not saying I'm leaving. How can you expect me to leave when there is so much to solve and discover? I just need to pay someone a visit. Show someone something."  
"Oh," the Doctor replied, a bit embarrassed. "So you.. you just want to show your boyfriend the invisible paint."  
Sherlock smiled. "Ah, I can't wait to see John's face. He's going to love this."  
The Doctor sighed and took all of the cans and put it in his pocket.  
"Time Lord technique. Bigger on the inside. Let's go!"  
"Wait, are you just going to steal this?" Escart asked. It's not that she wanted to stop him, it just didn't seem like something the Doctor would do.  
The Doctor laughed. "No, Maracusian technique. I told you. Now watch."  
He approached the man at the cash desk.  
"I took all of the anti-invisible spray you had and one can of invisible paint. I put it inside my pocket which is bigger on the inside."  
The cashier sighed. "We need a new set of visible-spray!" he spoke into a microphone. Escart turned around and saw how hundreds of cans just materialized out of nowhere on the shelf the Doctor took them from. He really didn't lie about their technique being impressive.  
"Alright," the cashier said to the Doctor, "tell me your Loacas-secret."  
"Your what?" Escart whispered.  
"A Loacas-secret is the way to pay on Maracus. You tell the cashier why you need the things you buy and if it's true you get it."  
"What, really?"  
The Doctor nodded and faced the cashier again. "I need them to solve a mystery on another planet which involves your planet from a parallel universe."  
The cashier looked at a strange machine that stood next to him; it showed green moving waves.  
"Alright, thank you for your purchase, come back soon, and have a nice day!" the cashier said, he tried his best to sound friendly.  
"Okay, explain," Escart said as they left the shop.  
"It is a lie detector. To check if I'm saying the truth."  
"And that's it? You just need to tell them what you need their stuff for and they give it to you?"  
"Exactly. That's why Maracus is the most peaceful planet in the universe. You can't buy any weapons or other products that could harm someone without saying what you need them for, and if you say you need them for murder or whatever, you get arrested. Maracusian technique basically makes crimes impossible."  
"But.. how? How do people live without money? I mean, they have all this technology and they did it all without.. money?"  
"Ah, Escart, money is only paper. If you people wouldn't have invented it you wouldn't need it and you would be perfectly fine."  
Escart was a bit appalled. If only Earth worked like that!  
"Now let's go back to Trencas to solve this once and for all, and then we can go back to Earth so Sherlock can impress his boyfriend," the Doctor said as they entered the TARDIS.

Back on Trencas they headed back to the house. There was a lot of space behind the house and the floor looked different than it did on other locations. They all wondered how they didn't notice it before.  
Eager and hopeful the Doctor took one of the spray cans and started spraying.  
Suddenly old wood became visible. They were right. It really was the paint.  
"Take this and start spraying!" the Doctor said and gave a few cans of spray to Sherlock and to Escart. They sprayed together and soon they were finished; the whole house was visible. It was huge, but not huge enough to hide a whole planet inside.  
"Do you think they have the Time Lord technique as well? This bigger on the inside thing?" Escart asked.  
The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know, maybe."  
"And they painted themselves invisible too, right?"  
"No, probably not. They heard Sherlock was here and they panicked, they were in a hurry and it probably took them long enough to paint the house, they wouldn't have the time to paint themselves. I'm sure that everything that steps inside something invisible becomes invisible."  
"We can't just go inside like that. I mean, they will go insane. They are scared to death already."  
"Right," the Doctor agreed, "Sherlock, you stay here. Escart too. I'll go."  
Escart nodded. "Good luck."

The Doctor was surprised when he entered the building. It looked like the opposite of the TARDIS – actually smaller on the inside – and he could only see about ten people.  
"Hello, I'm the Doctor, I'm from the police," he said, showing them the psychic paper. "Here to help. May I ask where the rest of you is?"  
The people stared at him shocked and disbelievingly.  
"I'm sorry for just breaking in like that, by the way. But that invisible paint thing is some really cool stuff. Respect."  
He waited for a response from one of the people, but they stayed silent.  
"Okay, so I know about Sherlock Holmes and I am here to stop him."  
"You can't," a young ginger girl, seemingly about 17 years old, replied. "Do you think no one on ever tried to stop Sherlock Holmes? Do you really think we would have come here if it was possible to stop him?"  
"Well, I'm not just someone. I'm here to bring you back to your universe, somehow."  
"We can't go back there!" an elderly man said. "It's not safe!"  
"But it will be."  
"You can't stop him. If a whole universe couldn't, you can't."  
The Doctor took a few seconds to think.  
"What if I already did?"  
"Go away, Doctor. We don't need you to try and give us hope. You made us visible. He will find us now."  
The Doctor waited a few seconds before he turned towards the door. "Escart!" he shouted, "bring in the prisoner!" 

Escart and Sherlock had both been quiet in the meantime, trying to hear what was going on inside.  
Escart knew exactly what the Doctor meant. So did Sherlock, although he was a bit skeptical about the plan.  
"Sherlock, do you have handcuffs with you?" Escart whispered.  
Sherlock sighed. "Yes."  
He took them out of his left coat pocket and she quickly took them from him to handcuff him.  
"You know what to do, right?"  
"Yes, now hurry up."  
Escart took Sherlock by his arm and opened the door. 

The Doctor quickly smiled at them. He knew they would understand.  
He turned around to face the people in the house again. "See? I told you. Here he is. My partner Escart Johnson and I caught him, he's under our captivity now. He can't harm anyone."  
The people stared at them in shock. Most of them were too paralyzed to say anything, because they couldn't believe it, or because of how afraid they were because their biggest enemy was right in front of them.  
"Handcuffs," the young girl said, "he managed to get here from another universe and you think handcuffs will hold him? Are you insane?"  
"Escart and I aren't just the ordinary police, we are the best of the best, the best police in the world. Of course those aren't ordinary handcuffs. Don't worry, no one can escape from them, even he can't."  
"Get him out of here!", a few people screamed, while others wanted him to stay so that they could finally take their revenge.  
"No. I like seeing him like that. Vulnerable and defenseless." The Young girl turned to the Doctor. "You know what we want, right? You know we want to torture him. We have the right to torture him. He did it to almost every life form in our universe. He is the most hated man in all galaxies."  
"He will get his punishment, we will make sure," the Doctor said, "but not here and not now. That's not why I'm here. I'm here to get you back to your universe. First of all, please tell me where the rest of you is?"  
"Why exactly would we trust you?"  
"Because I have Sherlock Holmes here, handcuffed, and if we wanted to harm you we would have done it a long time ago. Tell me where the rest of you is."  
The people in the room started arguing. No one really trusted the Doctor, but everyone wanted to go back to their universe, even though they doubted there was a way for them to go back.  
The elderly man spoke up.  
"If you want to know where the rest is, you need to follow us."  
Fearful and angry protests came from the others, but the man was sure about what he was going to do.  
"He has to stay here," he said as he pointed at Sherlock. "He can't know about it. I don't care how safe you say we are, he can never know about our secrets."  
The Doctor agreed. That really was understandable, and he was happy about their reaction. It was easier than he had expected.  
The people left the room to go outside. The Doctor was about to follow them but got held back by Escart.  
"Doctor, what now?"  
"You and Sherlock will have to stay here. I go with them."  
"And then? You'll just send them back to their planet?"  
"To their universe. Not to their planet of course."  
"You don't know if they will be safe there."  
"Trust me Escart, I've got a plan. They will be safe and they will be on a planet that they will have for themselves."  
Escart sighed. "So you'll go and have all the fun while I stay here and watch our prisoner."  
"Exactly," the Doctor smiled. "I'll come back and tell you everything when I'm finished."  
With that, he hurried up and followed the yellow people.  
"You know, you can take the handcuffs off now."  
Escart turned around when she heard Sherlock and laughed.  
"No, actually I can't."  
"Funny. I'm serious."  
"So am I. I don't have the key."  
"It is in my coat, obviously. Where else should it be?"  
Escart walked towards Sherlock, but suddenly something stopped her. She had to take a few steps back because her head was aching, she felt like she was about to die. It was that voice again.  
_"The key isn't in his coat. Don't waste your time."_

"What time?" she said out loud.  
"What?" Sherlock had already seen her acting like this before, she was once again proving that something wasn't right.  
A second later, Escart couldn't remember the voice or the pain anymore. She remembered _something_, she had this feeling again. A feeling that told her that Sherlock didn't actually have a key.  
"The key's not in your coat."  
Sherlock looked at her, trying to figure out what was happening.  
"How do you know?"  
"Huh, what? Uh, I, I just know. I saw it. It's obvious."  
"Is it?"  
"Yap. It's not there. You don't have the keys for your own handcuffs?"  
"You said something about time. What was it?"  
"No, I didn't."  
Sherlock looked at her disbelievingly. She obviously couldn't remember, he decided it would be best to come back to it later.  
"Must have lost it."  
"What?"  
"The key." He smiled.  
She smiled back. "You're an idiot."  
"And you were pretty concerned about the safety of the people. I was surprised."  
"Why? I'm not concerned about them, I don't care about any of them. I just don't think it would be fair to send them back to the place they did their best to flee from. The bad version of you is still out there after all. And besides that, it would have been very untypical for the Doctor, so I wondered. Don't pretend like you don't care at least a bit about what happens to them."  
"Whatever. The handcuffs?"  
"Not my fault you lost the key," Escart annoyingly replied, "we have to wait for the Doctor and his screwdriver." 

"Do you have spray left, Doctor?" the elderly man asked. The Doctor followed the people back into the house that had been visible before; they were in the empty room again.  
"Yes," the Doctor said and took out a spray can from his pocket. "What is your name?"  
"Akard" the man said as he took the spray can from the Doctor. "Now look closely."  
Akard started spraying in the center of the seemingly empty room, only to reveal that it wasn't actually empty. There was a spherical machine in the middle of the room.  
"Is this.. your spaceship?"  
"More than a spaceship," a woman said, "it is the ship that can travel through universes. You probably know about it. We can only use it again in hundred years and until then, we are stuck here."  
"No you're not" the Doctor optimistically said, "I know that it takes a lot of energy to travel through universes. For me it's impossible, but you, the great Maracusian empire, have always been known for making the impossible possible. I just need to use my sonic screwdriver to revert the energy, I just need an origin.. by the way, my question isn't answered. Where is the rest of you guys?"  
"Follow us inside," Akard said, "and you'll see."  
The inside of the ship had the same size as the outside had. It was impressive, but it looked more like an ordinary spaceship than a spectacular universe-travelling-machine.  
"You probably wonder how an entire planet fits in here," Akard continued, "and where the rest of us is. So, do you see the tiny green bars?"  
The Doctor looked around; the whole ship was full of tiny green bars.  
"What are they?"  
"They are actual living spaces. Every Maracusian has one personal bar, and whenever they touch them, they get transported inside. They can build themselves their own little paradise inside of them. It's like a dream, they just have to think about things and they appear. We use them so everyone fits into things like this ship. "  
"Amazing," the Doctor said. "Your technology is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Not even the TARDIS can compare to that. Hope she didn't hear that. Anyway, how do you fly it?"  
"We can't even turn it on. Only in hundred years."  
"Where do you normally turn it on?"  
"Over there" Akard said as he pointed towards a huge lever.

Sherlock kept looking at Escart as she was walking up and down the room. There was something going on with her, but what?  
"You've been staring at me for the last five minutes. Without a break."  
"I just want to get out of the handcuffs."  
"And looking at me will help with that?"  
"I'm bored."  
"Same."  
They both stayed silent for a while again.  
"Do you give yourself a title?" Sherlock asked.  
Escart looked at him confused. "I'm sorry?"  
"You said I call myself a sociopath to be special, and you were right about that, but what about you?"  
"Why do you care?"  
"I'm bored and my hands are literally tied. You aren't as boring and stupid as most of Earth's population."  
"Meaning I'm interesting. Because I know how you feel."  
Sherlock didn't reply.  
"Well," Escart continued, "I don't really give myself a title, no."  
Sherlock looked at her for a few seconds, trying to find out more about her.  
"But there's something about you."  
"Hm?"  
"You know you're more intelligent than the rest of the people you know, but everyone thinks you're weird and no one even bothers to listen to you. You know you are something special, but you also know that no one else except for yourself can see it. So you desperately want to make them see it as well. You decided that if you can't show them how you think, you're going to let them see it from your outside. It's obvious because of the hair, but the hair alone doesn't make you feel special enough."  
Sherlock waited for Escart's reaction. How she looked at him showed him that she wanted him to continue.  
"I've noticed it from the moment I first saw you, but now I'm sure."  
Escart was halfway torn between wanting and not wanting him to know.  
"Sure about what?"  
The Doctor came in before Sherlock could answer.

"You're back already? What about the others?"  
"Well, I did something brilliant. As always. I made sure they are safe."  
"How?"  
The Doctor smiled; it was obvious how proud of himself he was.  
"It was simple, actually. I mean I can't guaranty that the universe wasn't a bit harmed but we're still here, so.. I have many apps on my sonic screwdriver, and one of them can be used to send spaceships to a planet I chose. I sent them to a planet that is so unknown, it has about thirty different names because the people can't remember the real one. I used this very cool app to build a kind of protective barrier around the planet, so that it is impossible for other people to enter. Meaning that Sherlock can't harm them."  
"But I thought it would be hard? I mean, you said it's impossible."  
"Not for them. They only needed a bit of sonic. A lot, actually. It was a bit of a chaos. Some things exploded. But they are there now, all of them, safe. And we solved it."  
The Doctor was pleased with himself, Sherlock was still annoyed because of the handcuffs and Escart was simply confused.  
"I can't believe how fast it all went. I mean, I really didn't think it would be easy. They have the best technique in the world but didn't have a sonic screwdriver?"  
"Of course they do, don't be ridiculous. They just had a different kind of sonic. They needed mine. And I really shouldn't do that again since traveling between universes really should be impossible."  
"And they couldn't just do it themselves?"  
"No," the Doctor said, sounding a bit annoyed, "they fled from their planet, they couldn't take their stuff with them. Everything they had was left in their universe. They didn't have the technology here."  
"Where were the other people?"  
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Stop asking questions now, hm? You always get annoyed when people ask you questions."  
Escart silently laughed, he was right. If she were the Doctor she would have probably slapped herself.  
A few seconds later, everything froze. Nothing was moving, nothing except for Escart. Everything else even seemed to become kind of grey, lose the color.  
_She heard the voices again. She just didn't understand them.  
_They were like a different language, but they made her feel something. She wasn't sure what.  
As everything around her started moving and being normal again, she couldn't remember any of it.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but the handcuffs. Doctor?"  
The Doctor laughed at Sherlock and used his screwdriver to open the handcuffs.  
"Let's fly back to your place, and maybe there you'll even find the key."


	7. Coincidence

The Doctor, Escart and Sherlock were back in the TARDIS, on their way to London.  
"What about the girl?" Sherlock asked the Doctor as they were in the time vortex.  
"What girl?"  
"On the picture. What about her?"  
"I don't know. Didn't ask."  
Sherlock rolled his eyes. "It would have been _important_."  
"Shut up, the case is solved!"  
"Whatever." He sighed. "Have we landed yet?"  
The Doctor nodded.  
"How long have I been away?"  
"Uhm.. five minutes. Your boyfriend probably didn't even notice!"  
They walked towards the building. Sherlock and Escart were a bit skeptical.  
"Five minutes? How did it become so dark in five minutes?" she asked.  
"Besides that, my brother is here.." Sherlock sighed.  
Mycroft and John looked at them unbelievingly as they entered the room.

"Where the hell have you been?" John angrily asked Sherlock.  
"Don't worry, I didn't kill myself again."  
"Shut up."  
"How long have I been away?"  
"Five hours."  
Sherlock looked at the Doctor. "_Hours_."  
The Doctor shrugged. "Well, the TARDIS. Old girl. Always does what she wants to do."  
Sherlock ignored him and faced John again. "Why is my brother here?"  
"Because I thought that he of all people would know how a box can just disappear with you in it."  
"Why would he know that? He knows nothing!"  
"I do know a lot, Sherlock" Mycroft replied.  
"Good for you." Sherlock turned towards Escart and the Doctor. "Get him out of here. I can't stand having him in this room."  
"Look, I understand that you and your boyfriend want some.. alone time, but there's a time and a place, you know" the Doctor said but Sherlock slammed the door, leaving the three of them outside. 

"Okay, so would you explain this to me please?"  
"While you waited for five hours I've only been away for one hour because I was traveling through time in a blue box that gets upset when you call it a box because she's actually a girl, and she's bigger on the inside. In the last hour I've been on two different planets and I've solved a case about the mysterious disappearing of people with yellow skin color."  
There was a moment of silence.  
"Oh god."  
"What?"  
"They are drug dealers."  
"_What_?"  
"For God's sake Sherlock, you're supposed to be clean!"  
"John, I'm serious, it really happened like that."  
"Right."  
"I'm not on drugs!"  
"Sherlock, I remember a time in which you didn't even know what the solar system is, and now you're telling me you spent the last five hours in space saving the Simpsons?"  
Sherlock didn't understand. It must have been obvious that he wasn't high and not lying, even to John.  
"You do remember the invasion a few years ago, right? The talking robots that looked like salt shakers with metal eggs and always sounded like they're asking a question when they said something."  
"With the lasers?"  
"Yes."  
"You told me they were built by an insane genius who could turn the whole world into a computer if he wanted. You spent weeks trying to find that person while every sane human being was hiding."  
"I was wrong. They were aliens, I'm sure."  
"I can't believe you of all people would believe in that kind of stuff."  
"I was there John! I saw it!"  
"So you finally found your home planet then?"  
"I'm serious, John!" Sherlock was beginning to be impatient. "The Doctor is an alien. He has two hearts. You're a doctor, go take a look at it and tell me it's human."

In the meanwhile, Mycroft didn't stop asking Escart and the Doctor questions.  
"You look more human than he does," he told Escart.  
"Wow. Okay. That's what I call a good deduction."  
He smiled at her.  
"But I don't want to look human," she said. Mycroft ignored her. He was more interested in the Doctor.  
"What are you?"  
"The Doctor."  
"That does not answer my question."  
Escart interrupted them. "You are Sherlock's brother."  
"Yes. And you are just an ordinary person. Why would he want to be around you and your weird friend?"  
"Oh, don't you dare."  
Mycroft smiled. "Of course. You hate ordinary. Maybe you remind him of himself after all."  
Escart was about to say something, but the door opened and they were interrupted by Sherlock and John.  
John walked towards the Doctor and felt his heartbeat, without saying a word. The Doctor wasn't even surprised anymore.  
John didn't know how to react. The man did in fact have two beating hearts.  
"How do you..?"  
"Time Lord stuff. I was born this way."  
"So you expect me to believe that you're from another planet?"  
"Well.. yes."  
"Another planet?" Mycroft asked. "Hm. I knew you aren't human. So you abducted Sherlock, why would you bring him back? Was he too annoying? Oh, I understand."  
"I wasn't abducted, Mycroft, they came here by coincidence. Because I apparently have a strong psychic power or something."  
"What about her?"  
"You could just ask me yourself, you know," Escart said, but Mycroft ignored her.  
"Um, as far as I know she was picked up by coincidence too."  
"No."  
"What?"  
"You know what I say about coincidences, Sherlock? The universe is rarely so lazy."  
"Hold on," John interrupted them, "am I the only one who doesn't believe this?"  
"As I said, John, the universe isn't lazy. Do you really believe that Earth is the only planet that is home to creatures?"  
"Besides that, you just saw for yourself that I really do have two hearts," the Doctor said.  
"This is too much for one day."  
"Remember the invisible client?" Sherlock asked John, who tried his best not to act overwhelmed.  
"Uh, yes?"  
"Invisible paint."  
"Not that again.."  
"Invisible paint really does exist. Doctor?"  
The Doctor took a can of paint and a can of spray out of his pocket and gave it to Sherlock.  
He started painting his left hand.  
"See? Invisible."  
John tried to say something, but he failed at trying not to be overwhelmed.  
Sherlock sprayed his hand to be visible again.  
"Um.."  
"I was right."  
"You're saying that there could have been an alien inside our flat for months now without us noticing because it used invisible paint."  
"Exactly. We have a lot of sprays though. Mycroft! Please help us. Start in the kitchen. Spray everywhere, in every tiny corner." He gave him ten spray cans.  
Mycroft was skeptical but agreed on doing it.  
"So, we'll start here then.."  
"We won't start," Sherlock said. "Let Mycroft do it. You need to come with us."  
"What? Doctor, why do I need to come with you?"  
The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know. Sherlock didn't say anything about it. I guess he just wants his boyfriend around."  
"Oh, no. Not you too."  
"What?"  
"I am not gay."  
"You don't have to be."  
"I am getting married. To a woman."  
"Cool. You're about to step inside of a time machine and me thinking that you're gay is your biggest concern? Come on, follow me!"the Doctor happily said. He was glad about more people in the TARDIS.  
Escart could see a weird look on Sherlock's face. As if he was hurt.

"It is a trick," John said, not quite believing his eyes.  
"This is like a moving film set or something. It can't be real."  
"It is real," the Doctor proudly said. "It's called the TARDIS and it can travel anywhere in time and space."  
"Do you always say that?" Sherlock asked.  
"Would you like to explain the room system to John, Sherlock? I mean, you have the best experience with it," the Doctor sarcastically replied.  
"John, do you want to see a planet?"  
John didn't know what to say. He wanted to.. at least he thought so.  
"Doctor, let's show him a planet."  
The Doctor sighed. "Yeah, you people always want to see _planets_. Earth is a planet. You literally just have to step outside to see a planet."  
"Right. Let's go to the past then. Or the future. Show us future England!"  
"Suddenly he's being enthusiastic," the Doctor said as he started to pull the levers.  
They started flying. 

While they were floating in the time vortex, Sherlock was lost in his thoughts. He was on the other side of the control room when he remembered the picture. He took it out of his pocket and looked at it.  
Escart saw him standing there and wondered what he was doing.  
"Sherlock, are you alright?"  
Before he could reply, the TARDIS started shaking.  
"What is happening?" John screamed.  
"Something that's not supposed to happen!" the Doctor said worried.  
They were crashing. The Doctor experienced this once before, a few years ago. How could this be happening again?

Everything went by so fast. They crashed, but somehow they were fine.  
Sherlock quickly put the picture back into his pocket again before they stepped out.  
John was the first one to realize that this place looked exactly like before.  
"What the hell.. we didn't even move. I told you it was a fake."  
"We did move.." the Doctor said, "we moved a lot more then we should have."  
"What do you mean?" Sherlock asked.  
"Parallel universe."  
"What? I thought that's impossible!"  
"It is! Which is why I don't understand this!"  
It was the first time Sherlock saw the Doctor being really confused.  
"Does this mean.. we are in the universe of the evil me?"  
"Yes. I've been here before."  
"You've met the evil me?"  
"No. But I shouldn't be here again."  
John didn't understand.  
_"What?"  
_"We found out that there exists an evil version of me in this universe who is responsible for countless crimes, terrorizing the yellow people being one of them."  
John just nodded. _It really was too much_.  
"I'm pretty sure we need to find evil Sherlock," Escart suggested. "But look around. It may be Baker Street, but there's no 221B."  
"Yes, if I was the most famous criminal person, notice the irony, I wouldn't live in a tiny flat in Baker Street either."  
"We have to find out where he lives!  
"Uhm, yes. You do that. I'll find you later."  
"What?"  
"I need to find out how we got here."  
"Alright.. are you sure? He's like, the most dangerous criminal ever."  
"Yeah, but I count on you. You'll be okay. This is important, Escart."  
Escart nodded. "Well then.. see you later."  
Something was wrong. The Doctor would never let them face danger alone.  
Her, John and Sherlock turned around and started walking together.  
The Doctor waited until he couldn't see them anymore.  
He lied. Finding out how they got here was important, but not his main concern right now.  
He walked in the other direction. Now that he was back in this universe, the first thing he had to do was to find someone special. 


End file.
